Blue Alert is a deceptively simple collection of bittersweet songs cut from the cloth of love, loss and redemption. This collaboration between Anjani and Leonard Cohen is calm and controlled but challenging ideas bristle and flay beneath the polished surface.

The poetic voice informing the singer breathes unselfconsciously into Anjani's vocals, and rather than being distracted by the beauty of her voice, the beauty becomes a safe passage, in. Listening to Blue Alert results in the record revealing itself differently with every play. Ephemeral and relaxing, the sound experience could stay there if Anjani was not at the top of her interpretive game. She offers up lines that alternately cajole and coerce the listener into other realms throughout the disc. Leading the ear and heart to remember things unspoken, Anjani is seer and interpreter of the insistent shapes beyond the words.

Initially inspired by a newly minted poem of Cohen's titled Blue Alert, a further mining of his journals transformed bits and pieces of lyrics into a full-blown album, with Anjani writing, arranging and performing all of the music. At first, the simplicity of her arrangements may seem sparse. A listener expects more guitar, drums and perhaps strings to anchor his preconceptions of music to. In the early stages of recording this project, Anjani may have agreed. "Leonard gave me free reign to try all kinds of ideas on all the songs. But his lyrics give the listener so much to process that most of the additional instrumentation detracted from the message. He taught me to trust in the simplicity…so I focused on creating a pure vessel for the voice."

This marrying of Cohen's minimalism with Anjani's musicality has led to a set of contemporary standards that sound like classic songs you think you should know. Never underestimating their listener's intelligence and aesthetic perception, Anjani and Cohen have sculpted a record for the ages that - like a good wine - will grow more complex and subtle with the passage of time.