The Shum duo’s first album pays tribute to rare works from the piano and cello repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. From Asia Minor to the Baltic States, this musical journey begins in Turkey with the Four Cities sonata composed by Fazıl Say. A symbol of peace since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Myroslav Skoryk’s Melody was one of the first scores that the Shum duo performed in concert. This tribute to the Ukrainian people is also reflected in the piece for solo piano on the record: Dumka-Shumka by Mykola Lysenko, the father of Ukrainian classical music. Russian aesthetics, the sister of Ukrainian culture, are represented by Sergei Rachmaninov’s famous Vocalise. Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances faithfully transcribe traditional dances recorded in the Transylvanian countryside, while Alfred Schnittke’s Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano is largely imbued with the Soviet era in which the composer grew up. The album’s musical journey closes with a hypnotic page by Arvo Pärt, Spiegel im Spiegel.