Two musicians who have impressive credits as both leaders and sidemen, guitarist Kevin Eubanks and pianist Orrin Evans, form a duo in what is a relatively rare combination of instruments.

With the former using the electric six-string with as much economy and subtlety as incendiary power on occasions, and the latter often massaging rather than pounding the keyboard, the music they produce has a graceful introspection, as the onus is placed on chorale-like statements, lyrical phrases and improvisations that are not excessively note-laden.

The players excel at sultry ambiances when the tempo is down, but, for all the star-eyes sensitivity of much of the material the real piece de résistance comes by way of the gritty, greasy groove of the album’s highlight ‘And… They Ran Out Of Bisquits!’ It is a slice of off-kilter minor blues-funk that makes a virtue of Eubanks bending one hefty bass note as Evans stretches out playfully around the spare tonality, gradually provoking his partner into a punchy exchange of lines.

Two people, no drums, one hard-hitting band. In the exclusive club of guitar-piano duets Jim Hall and Bill Evans loom large, and while there are inevitable nods to that model Eubanks and (Orrin) Evans personalise the vocabulary in pleasing ways, suggesting at times what a meeting of Kenny Burrell and Mulgrew Miller may have produced. But above all they give a sense of who they are and their desire to find rich common ground without cramping their individuality.