Review: Manu Delago & Max ZT - Deuce (Session Work Records)

Not one but 'Deuce' as Manu Delago and Max ZT explore the handpan and the hammered dulcimer on this new 9-track album that's aimed at finding inner peace and beauty - and they're on a UK spring tour soon!

It doesn't take long before you're engrossed with the peaceful beauty of these Grammy-nominated innovators, Manu Delago (handpan) and Max ZT (hammered dulcimer) in this new partnership of sound.  

Drawing on "a lifetime of lifetime of globl collaboration, deep improvisation, and refined compositional craft, the two virtuosos create immersive, meditativee soundscapes that unfold with both delicacy and drive".

Taking inspiration from the likes of Ravi Shankar, Alice Coltrane from the 60s/70s to the 1994 Grammy Award winner, Best World Music Album, for the improvisied, collaborative album 'A Meeting By The River' by Ry Cooder (bottleneck guitar) and V.M. Bhatt (Mohan Vina).

So there's form for this duo meeting of the minds, like a musical yin and yang as the full and empty stretch mediative sounds from nature to almost Greek/Mediteranian themes; '40/40'.  This reminded me of when I first heard the pandrum in the early 20-10s (?) in a more contemporary/electronic jazz context of Mathew Halsall's Gondwana Records and Asaf Sirkis (Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble, John Law, Tim Garland, Gwilym Simcock and many more) and it can, at times, sound ambient electronic and here, mixed with the dulimer, eastern yogic. Other times, just great, like running through a field of corn in the countryside in the summer, 'Inhale'.

That said, it's unfair to focus on any single track as the album is more of an 'immersive' whole; albeit, 'Sweetspot', 'Pace' and 'Exhale' are a pretty good trio-run to the end.

The project seems totally natural and immediate, so its a little surprising to be told that. the duo met almost 10 years ago when Manu Delago was touring in the US. “Originally we started with improvisation, but over the years we developed various compositions. Last year we finally found the perfect time and space to record the music, in an amazing 18th-century space in an even older monastery in the Alps. A duo facing each other where both members had just turned 40? We had to call the album Deuce” remembers Manu Delago".

Both players are not only in tune with one another, Manu has played drums/handpans with diverse artists as Björk, Anoushka Shankar, The Cinematic Orchestra and performed as soloist with the Metropole Orkest, London Symphony Orchestra as well as award winning album and film scores plus green credentials; in 2021, he, his band and crew cycled 1500 kilometers across Europe as part of his Re:cycled tour..

Max ZT, has been called, “The Jimi Hendrix of the Hammered Dulcimer” with a "lifetime of global study and innovation"  having being an apprentice with Senegal’s revered Cissoko Griot family and studying under the legendary Pandit Shivkumar Sharma in India. Also having collaborated with a load of diverse musicians, releasing lots of albums including his most recent, 'On Becoming' being nominated for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the 2024 GRAMMY Awards.

Hardly surprising then that when these two guys got together to produce 'Deuce' it has been said, that this album feels both ancient and new at the same time.  Yet another duplciity, but there's no deciet here, just beautiful sounds on a beautiful album.

BUY LINK / PRE-ORDER: https://linktr.ee/manudelagomaxzt

Tour dates: 

29 March - Milton Court, London
31 March - Band on the Wall, Manchester
1 April - Old Woolen, Leeds
2 April - St George’s, Bristol
3 April - Brewery Arts, Kendal
4 April - St John’s, Cardiff
5 April - Lansdown Hall, Stroud

Artist: Manu Delago & Max ZT

Title: Deuce 
Release date: 20th February, 2026
Label : Session Work Records
Catalog Number  TBC
Format:  Digital