Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Kris Davis get to the heart of their collaborationBill Meyeron June 12, 2020 at 9:40 pm

Like so many other musicians based in New York, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Kris Davis migrated there. Davis moved from Canada in 2001; Laubrock was born and raised in Germany, then spent nearly a decade in England before moving to the U.S. in 2009. For as long as they’ve lived in the same neck of the woods, they’ve appeared on each other’s records, and for a time they played together in the trio Paradoxical Frog with drummer Tyshawn Sorey. Blood Moon, their first recording as a duo, exploits their exacting attunement to each other’s idiosyncratic moves. On the hushed Davis original “Flying Embers,” their adjacent pitches shimmer like the haze of an open flame, in sustained tones and short, pianissimo phrases that make you forget what instruments you’re hearing. The pianist’s restrained touch on the title track, a Laubrock composition, seems to place her notes inside the tenor saxophone’s sound. And on the improvisation “Gunweep,” soprano saxophone and piano exchange roles from second to second, each threading quicksilver phrases through the other’s staccato rhythms. Every one of the album’s nine pieces is a distinct, absorbing world unto itself. v

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