Weird and wonderful tales

"Decidedly odd, but in an amazingly good way. Bâton Bleu are a duo of Maria Laurent - who we've previously enthused about in the wonderful French multi-cultural band Meïkhâneh (...) - providing the lioness's share of accompaniments on Mongolian tovshuur, banjo, glockenspiel, thumb pianos, aulos, flute and more, and Gautier Degandt on bass harmonica, thumb pianos, guitar and percussion. Both sing: the combination is a real vocal beauty-and the-beast. She's sweetly melodic bluesy, occasionally Arabic-sounding in her harmonies; he's gruff in a french-accented Blind-Willie-Johnson-meets-Waits sort of way. Mesmerising".