Music by Debussy, Milhaud, Clarke & Werkman – Silhouettes (CD, Channel Classics)

World-class musicians Dana Zemtsov and Anna Fedorova joined forces when they discovered they have a mutual friend. ‘Do you know that feeling when coming to a new place as if the atmosphere you are in has been with you forever, recognizing it like an old friend? Our upbringing was similar, and filled with Guy de Maupassant, Gustave Flaubert, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Jean de La Fontaine, Pierre Richard, Louis de Funès, Georges Brassens, Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet. This could be a logical explanation for us both experiencing this sense of familiarity every time we cross the border to France. Or maybe we have lived some of our previous lives in these surroundings that they seem so close to us?