Released

There’s a fair amount of overlap between British keyboardist Greg Foat and Italian keyboardist Gigi Masin. Both favor space-via-electronics and sparse piano accompaniment where necessary, though Foat generally works in collaborative jazz settings, while Masin is known for his cherished ambient ’80s solo albums and one-off drifts like Gaussian Curve. On paper, a collaboration might not seem to make much sense beyond such mutual admiration, yet Dolphin finds both keyboardists floating amicably alongside one another in serene waters.

And such water metaphors are hard to avoid with an ambient album that favors ebbs and drifts. Little rivulets (like the brief interludes of “Dolphin” and “Leo Theo”) and more jazzy numbers (“Viento Calido”) widen into great ambient expanses (as on the exquisite “Sabena”). The glissades and rippling effects of both gentlemen and their melodic wanderings remain hypnotizing throughout, flowing over all.

Andy Beta

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