Pianist Bill Laurance and bassist and oud player Michael League bring their much-loved duo to Cadogan Hall with music from Close to Home – their third album together, and their most intimate yet.

Bill and Michael’s friendship goes back more than two decades to the Leeds music scene where they first played together and the early days of Snarky Puppy. As a duo, they work to a simple idea: say a lot with very little. It has earned them a devoted following and two acclaimed albums, Where You Wish You Were and Keeping Company.

For Close to Home, they spent three days in April 2026 at Château Palmer, a celebrated wine estate in Bordeaux, recording for ACT’s ACT x Palmer series.

“When we arrived at Château Palmer, time instantly slowed down,” they recall. You can hear it from the first track, ‘Luray’: breathing between phrases, the ring of the oud, the soft thud of the piano’s mechanism and, in the pauses, birdsong drifting in from the garden. Many of the songs were written in the small hours, between 2am and 5am.

Like the duo’s earlier albums, this is an album of songs. Clear melodies and light-footed rhythms draw on jazz, folk, blues, pop and minimalism, and on music from the Mediterranean, the Americas, East and West. “The beauty of this duo is that there is no style that’s off the table,” says Bill.

“We’re inviting the listener to be in this house along with us, rather than trying to put on a show for them.” Michael League

Early booking recommended.