Album: Ryan Francesconi & Mirabai Peart, Road to Palios (Bella Union)

Ryan Francesconi and Mirabai Peart are best known as guitarist and violinist, respectively, in Joanna Newsom's Ys Street Band, adding delicate tracery and texture to her serpentine songs.

Inspired by a trip the couple made to the Greek islands, these instrumentals confirm Francesconi's virtuoso technique and fertile imagination, his waves of fingerpicked acoustic rippling with the calm logicality of Ralph Towner and the exotic grace of John Fahey on "Parallel Flights" and "Pontic", counterpointed by the drone textures of Peart's violin. By turns baroque, folksy and raga-esque, there's a soothing, meditative aspect to the music redolent of a Mediterranean sunset.

Download: Parallel Flights; Road to Palios; Pontic