Formed in 2017 and making their debut recording that year with Crop Circles, the idiosyncratic duo of Brooklyn-based Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson combined again in 2021 for the highly impressive album Searching for the Disappeared Hour. In spite of another four-year gap, the new release Bone Bells, on pianist Kris Davis’ cutting-edge jazz label Pyroclastic, has been well worth the wait. On close listening, the duo’s tight-knit, simpatico union seems to have evolved even further playing on a striking set of shared compositions. A purposeful, gripping dialogue is heightened by both the flexibility and inventive responsiveness of their dual roles. Halvorson’s opener ‘Bone Bells’ could be a soundtrack for an offbeat 1960s spy B-movie. Halvorson has perhaps her most conventional storytelling hat on when soloing, but with koto and dulcimer music coming to mind as much as any school of jazz guitar. Courvoisier, in her solo, seamlessly merges a hip avant-blues jazz riffage with tense chordal chromaticism and waves of harp-like glissandi.

In contrast, ‘Esmeralda’ with its dramatic percussive motifs and creative use of space is more like abstract chamber concert music than jazz but isn’t only for avant-improv aficionados. On Halvorson’s ‘Beclouded’ the guitarist solos something like Django Reinhardt had he come from modern-day downtown New York. Bone Bells isn’t only their strongest duo offering to date but one of the most inspired and kaleidoscopic contemporary jazz pairings in recent times.