Short version says it all. I can listen to this music all day long and saunter around with a hop in my step. It is very uplifting and peaceful, yet powerful, because it sticks with you.

Van Gogh by Numbers teams Joe Locke with Christos Rafalides, a late-1990s graduate student of Locke’s from the Manhattan School of Music. Rafalides may have been his student then, but he’s on equal footing here, fully sharing the spotlight in both composition and performance. Locke stays mainly on vibes and Rafalides on marimba, the two swapping instruments only twice—on Rafalides’ bright “Pandora’s Dance” and Locke’s poignant “Waking Now, I Wonder.” The textural nature of the two instruments—the vibes’ brighter colours and the marimba’s darker, woodier sound—works exceptionally well together, creating a sound that’s full yet spacious. While there’s room for dense harmonic clusters, the music never become cluttered. Locke’s title track sets the tone for the album, often made up of long-form and winding melodies with shifting bar lines and a seamless tag-team approach to trading solo and accompaniment duties. Throughout Van Gogh by Numbers Locke and Rafalides demonstrate the kind of shared understanding that explains why the duet is perhaps the most intimate of all possible musical ensembles. With only two players in the conversation, it’s possible for each one to be totally focused on what the other is saying without interruption, and both Locke and Rafalides are sensitive listeners indeed.