Album: Wyatt, Atzmon, Stephen, For The Ghosts Within (Domino)

This collaboration with Tango Siempre violinist Ros Stephen and saxophonist Gilad Atzmon finds Robert Wyatt in relaxed, croonsome mood on a mixture of noirish standards and items from the Wyatt repertoire, the tone of which recalls that ancient TV commercial for Strand cigarettes reworked for the Middle East market.

There's a languid exoticism about Atzmon's sympathetic-string drones, reed arabesques and duduk-style timbre on tracks such as "Lullaby For Irena" and "The Ghosts Within", while Stephen's string-quartet arrangements lend a diffident poise to the likes of "Laura" and "Round Midnight", on which Wyatt whistles the main melody. Elsewhere, Chic's "At Last I Am Free" is done as a chamber-dub tango, while the serpentine melody and watery theme make Wyatt's own "Maryan" slither in a mysterious, eel-like manner.

DOWNLOAD THIS The Ghosts Within; Maryan; At Last I Am Free; Laura