'Mitchell and Hawkins move naturally, effortlessly and playfully between a loose but uncompromising, contemporary texture to a lyrical improvisation and a fiery free jazz onslaught, bursting with urgent ideas and performing with immediate, close interplay' - salt-peanuts.eu

Nicole Mitchell and Alexander Hawkins first performed together in a trio with Tomeka Reid, and most recently as part of a Hawkins commission at the Boulez Saal in Berlin, in an ensemble which also included Reid, Sofia Jernberg, Gerry Hemingway and Matthew Wright. In between, in 2022, they gave a pair of duo performances - one each at the Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music, and Cafe Oto. The latter performance yielded the album 'At Earth School' (Astral Spirits), which included a sequence of improvisations, alongside a spontaneous performance of 'There is a Balm in Gilead.' This concert sees the pair revisit the duo format for the first time since this night.