Pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, two of creative music’s most resourceful players and two of its most distinctive improvisers, learned to meld and mesh their artistic approaches inside Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory ensemble in 2002.

Since then, Iyer and Taborn have continued to play concerts together. The Transitory Poems, recorded live at the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest, in March 2018, is their first duo album. A marvel of shared invention, it incorporates pieces offered as tributes to formative influences including pianists Cecil Taylor, Muhal Richard Abrams and Geri Allen, and the painter and sculptor Jack Whitten.

Iyer and Taborn’s first shared ECM credit was the 2007 Roscoe Mitchell album Far Side (recently reprised in the box set The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Associated Ensembles) but each has a considerable body of acclaimed recordings made for the label over the past decade.

Tracks:
1. Life Line (seven tensions)
2. Sensorium
3. Kairos
4. S.H.A.R.D.S.
5. Shake Down
6. Clear Monolith
7. Luminous Brew
8. Meshwork/Libation (When Kabuya Dances)