Reaching for the Moon Elina Duni & Rob Luft

• 1 Reaching for the Moon 04:57
• 2 Cammina Cammina 05:19
• 3 Les Berceaux 02:58
• 4 Ani More Nuse 03:14
• 5 Foolish Flame 04:02
• 6 Leili Lullaby 05:38
• 7 Zambaku i Prizrenit 05:08
• 8 Yumeji's Theme & Sleep Safe and Warm 02:54
• 9 Magnolia 02:54
• 10 Your Arms 04:52
• 11 Lonely Woman 04:58
• Total Runtime 46:54

Info for Reaching for the Moon

“Few contemporary jazz-influenced singers manage to sound so intensely like themselves while drawing on such a variety of genres, languages, and cultural backstories as the Albania-born vocalist Elina Duni,” The Guardian has noted, and Reaching for the Moon once again casts a wide net. It’s Duni’s third recording with UK guitarist Rob Luft, and where Lost Ships and A Time To Remember featured their co-led quartet, the core duo come to the fore here, in a programme that begins with Irving Berlin’s title song and ends with Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”. Along the way we hear Duni and Luft originals, traditional music from Kosovo, a lullaby penned by Persian singer Mahsa Vahdat, a ballad from Italian singer-songwriter Pino Daniele, French composer Gabriel Fauré’s art song “Les Berceaux”, themes for film written by Japan’s Shigeru Umebayashi and Poland’s Krzysztof Komeda, and more. “Our duo, our project, is a musical journey,” says Elina. “Different styles and different languages to bridge the gap between people”. Duni’s resourcefulness as singer is well-matched by Luft’s instrumental skills, the guitarist drifting mellifluously between idioms, gently enveloping melodies, underlining emotional expression in the song texts, and enhancing atmospheres. Reaching for the Moon was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the South of France in June 2025. The album, produced by Manfred Eicher, is released as Elina Duni and Rob Luft embark on a European tour with concerts in Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Albania.

“Few contemporary jazz-influenced singers manage to sound so intensely like themselves while drawing on such a variety of genres, languages, and cultural backstories as the Albania-born vocalist Elina Duni.” – John Fordham, The Guardian

Elina Duni, voice, percussion
Rob Luft, guitars, electronics

Recorded in June 2025 at Studios La Buissonne, Pernes les Fontaines, France
Produced by Manfred Eicher

Elina Duni
Born in Tirana, Albania, in 1981, Elina Duni made her first steps on the stage aged five, singing for National Radio and Television. In 1992, she settled in Geneva, where she started studying classical piano and subsequently discovered jazz. Jazz studies at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern led to the formation of her quartet with Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret and Norbert Pfammatter, a group that lasted for more than 10 years. The band’s interweaving of Balkan folk songs and improvising on albums including the ECM releases Matanë Malit (Beyond the Mountain) and Dallëndyshe (The Swallow), was widely praised for its subtly and adroitness.

In 2017 Duni recorded the remarkable solo album Partir, on which she played all the instruments and sang in nine languages. Her first concerts with Rob Luft extended the Partir project, the guitarist expanding the atmospheric sound-world of the songs with electronics and effects: this developed into a partnership where creative parameters were established by both musicians.

Rob Luft
was born in South London in 1993. He began playing with Britain’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra at 15, before going on to study at the Royal Academy of Music. On graduating in 2016 he received the academy’s Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, and has since been the winner of a number of awards, most recently including the UK Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2025, where he was voted Instrumentalist of the Year.

Booklet for Reaching for the Moon