Wolfarth and Fisch are frequent participants in small acoustic formations that go in for contemporary forms of improvisation. The present project highlights the exceptional harmony that binds the two protagonists and a rare partnership in which neither plays second fiddle; they take turns at star solos in concert with the other. Coloured by the blues and the tradition of such greats as Charles Lloyd, Sonny Rollins and Ornette Coleman, saxophone player Donat Fisch offers us an exceptionally limpid melodic performance and a discourse that gets right to the point. Christian Wolfarth, a master builder on drums, is already the author of an excellent solo record ("3-3-2", Percaso 1996). This student of Pierre Favre works regularly with dancers, a collaboration that has enabled him to develop a personal view of composition and a melodic approach that makes itself felt with full force in this duet. "Circle & Line" features eighteen miniatures - ballads, sketches of songs and improvised pieces due mainly to Donat Fisch. This Bern musician has recently revealed himself to be one of the most persistently individual voices on the Swiss jazz scene. The duo with Wolfarth offers him a medium of expression with a powerful potential extending even to the sounds of silence. Reserved and articulate, this conversation between Fisch and Wolfarth is conducted sotto voce an gets better as it goes along, comforting our hopes of a popular art form that keeps what it promises.