Altera Vita is a collaboration between saxophonist Tony Kofi and harpist Alina Bzhezhinska. Kofi is a legend on the UK jazz scene, having started his career, back in the `80s, as a member of the Jazz Warriors, alongside luminaries such as Courtney Pine. Ukrainian-born Bzhezhinska, now based in London, has studied and toured across Europe and the US. According to the press release, the album aims to create an “aural oasis”, and it certainly succeeds in this goal.

The arrangements are warm and intimate. Just the two players engaged in delicate dialogue. Call-and-response, give-and-take conversations. Affectionate exchanges where Alina’s heavenly harp provides calming counterpoint. Soothing Tony’s tenor sax’s fevered brow. Tenderly tempering the railing. Together, singing the blues, but also blowing them away.

Sparse sympathetic percussion comes in the shape of bells, gongs, shakers like seashells born on a gentle tide. Kalimba, whose steel tongue chatters like rainforest wildlife. Well-travelled musician, and White Isle resident, Muriel Grossman adds a beautiful tanpura buzz. Everything experiences the odd dream-like drop into echo. 

The pieces sometimes summon an air of solitary, introspective thought. Meditation over, maybe a late night cocktail, solo, somewhere sophisticated. Or a quiet, strong coffee, contemplating, the morning after. The mood is romantic. Like the score for some snappily dressed black and white noir. Bogart in Casablanca, nursing a scotch and a broken heart. Or a classic French `60s story of existential, star-crossed lovers. Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War. Memories dancing to the giddy glissandi, spinning serene spirals of both the strings and the reed. Sometimes a sense of sadness, regret, seeps in.

In part a tribute to Pharoah Sanders, the pair also channel Alice and John Coltrane. The spirit and desire to offer up a joyful noise unto the creator is most definitely there in Kofi’s soaring freer flights. Blasts and bleats that riff on rhythm, and stretch toward transcendence.

Alina Bzhezhinska and Tony Kofi’s Altera Vita is out now on BBE.