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

Suggestions
Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper cover

Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper

Ballaké Sissoko, Derek Gripper
Trans-Millenia Music cover

Trans-Millenia Music

Pauline Anna Strom
Black Focus cover

Black Focus

Yussef Kamaal
Senyah cover

Senyah

Roy Haynes
Destiny Waiving cover

Destiny Waiving

Ulrich Schnauss, Mark Peters
Upchurch cover

Upchurch

Phil Upchurch
And the Birds Flew Overhead cover

And the Birds Flew Overhead

Elysse Thebner Miller, Mary Lattimore