Two instruments can be more than enough when neither musician knows exactly where the conversation will end up.

Guitarist Jesse van Ruller and saxophonist b>Maarten Hogenhuis come from different generations of Dutch jazz, but they share something essential: curiosity. A willingness to listen before deciding. To let a melody, a particular sound or even an accident open a door that was never part of the plan.

Van Ruller has been a major voice in European jazz for decades. In 1995 he became the first European musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Guitar Competition, before a jury that included Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall and Pat Martino. Since then, he has shared stages and studios with musicians including Roy Hargrove, Christian McBride, Tom Harrell and Peter Erskine.

But none of that history has tamed the way he plays. There is still room for surprise, exploration and the unexpected.

Maarten Hogenhuis comes from another generation, with an equally restless approach that refuses to sit neatly inside a single label. Saxophonist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, he is known for projects including BRUUT!, his own trio, and a career that moves freely between jazz, experimentation and other sonic territories.

Together, they have spent years developing a language of their own. Their first album as a duo, Spirits High, emerged in 2021 during the lockdowns, built around compositions by both musicians. Three years later came Follow the Sound— a title that could almost serve as a manifesto: follow the sound, not the rules.

For that second record, unusual guitars, flutes from different parts of the world, small amplifiers, effects and even everyday objects turned into instruments all helped determine where the music would go.

Yet underneath all that sonic experimentation lies something very simple: two musicians listening to one another.

A phrase on the guitar can open up an entire landscape. The saxophone might step inside it, break it apart or simply leave a line hanging in the air. Sometimes melody takes the lead; sometimes sound itself does. And between them lies the space that only the best duos seem to find: a place where neither musician is accompanying the other, because both are building the music at the same time.

They do not need a rhythm section to create momentum. They do not need to fill every silence. And they certainly do not need to decide whether what they are playing belongs to the jazz of yesterday, today, or whatever comes next.

Perhaps all they need to do is what the title of their latest record suggests: follow the sound.

On 8 December, Jesse van Ruller and Maarten Hogenhuis travel from the Netherlands to Sa Congregació in Sa Pobla, bringing a guitar, a saxophone — and all the possibilities that lie between them.

Two musicians. Two instruments. And enough curiosity not to need a map.