Melt is an unexpected pairing given my previous experience with both artists. Higuchi I have heard mostly in an almost conventional jazz context, marked by conventional piano playing and her powerful, idiosyncratic vocal style, while Cris X (Cristano Luciani) I associate with harsher, more noise oriented abstractions. Neither deviate too far from what I expected from them on here, but the odd pairing works surprisingly well and comes together as more than the sum of its parts. Higuchi and Cris X work with very different sounds and styles on their own, and while superficially the two may not seem complimentary, the overreaching dark but beautiful mood is what draws them together. Normally I would expect the more unsettling moments to come courtesy of the electronics, but the most chilling moments were largely Higuchi's contributions. It is the combination of both, however, that causes Melt to excel.