*300 copies limited edition* A sense of movement, a sense of space. Volkmann and Dinucci orbit one another, testing the ground, feeling the edges, dancing, circling, freewheeling, finding gaps and building tension, stepping into one another’s shadows, finding their pulse and then just letting go. Two musicians in the full flight of rhythmic and spiritual unison. Luise Volkmann and Kiko Dinucci have spent the last three years developing their own idiosyncratic musical language. A sound steeped in MPB and the acoustic guitar traditions of Brazil on the one hand, and European jazz and improvised music on the other, it is at once playful and experimental, charmingly detailed and fiercely intense, a coming together that speaks of kinship in friction, beauty in contrast, a moment of calm amid the turbulence. 

Canto de Olho is their second album as a duo. Translated as a brief look, caught from out of the corner of your eye, it builds on the urgency of their 2024 debut Enxame, and takes it in a thrilling new direction. Threaded into the serpentine improvisations are song-like structures drawn from quotes dedicated to the Orixás - the ancestral deities originating in West African Yoruba tradition and central to the Afro-Brazilian religious practices of Candomblé. Across six expansive tracks, Volkmann's alto tone is at times soft and subtle, at others bold and insistent, falling in and out of rhythm with Dinucci’s guitar riffs as they run hand-in-hand across layered landscapes of sound. Celebrations, meditations and incantations abound. There’s a confidence here, a sense of two musicians getting to know one another in real time through an inquisitive, intuitive dialogue between cultures and musical traditions. 

For Dinucci, a fascination with the emotive power of the guitar emerged through both a love of Sao Paulo’s punk and hardcore scenes in the ‘90s, and discovering the Afro-influenced sound of Baden Powell, Dorival Caymmi and Gilberto Gil. Finding outlets with post-samba quartet Passo Torto and Afro-punk-jazz outfit Metá Metá, Dinucci returned to his love for stripped back guitar and vocal performance to release a trio of solo albums between 2017 and 2021. When Cologne-based saxophonist Luise Volkmann travelled to Sao Paulo in 2023 to take part in a residency, she was ready not only to reignite her connection with a country where she had lived for a year as a student, but also embrace the musical encounters that might emerge. In Dinucci, she found a profound counterpoint. 

Playing together across Europe at venues such as Café Oto in London, the pair came together to record the album at o-Ton studios in Cologne in summer 2025 with the freedom and electricity of their live performances still fresh. Set to be released by Power House Records in May 2026 in an edition of 300, Canto de Olho captures this vitality, revealing itself in new shades with every listen. Rhythms ebb and flow. Notes swirl like spirits in the warm air. Lights blur. Something glimpsed from the corner of your eye wills you to let go too, and follow your heart into the dizzy darkness of the night. Canto de Olho will take you there.