Carlo Domeniconi is a master of guitar composition. His fusion of Western and Eastern elements is a distinctive feature of his writing, and this album presents a body of work for the unusual combination of mandolin and guitar. The large-scale Durandarte charts a medieval knight’s wild journey through the countryside, which is accompanied by poignant love songs, elegies, and agitated cross-rhythms. In Tarantula precox he summons up a dervish-like dance; while in the kaleidoscopic moods of Zemrude the Orient and the Middle East merge dramatically. All but one of these works have been composed especially for the Mare Duo.