Although Remembrance sounds exactly like what one would expect from Chick Corea and Béla Fleck – often rewarding and occasionally challenging – it is nevertheless full of surprises. 

The fact it exists – given it arrives three years after Corea’s death – is surprising enough. That it contains three previously unreleased compositions by the pianist, improvisations (dubbed “impromptu I-V” though scattered across the LP in non-sequential order), Fleck compositions and Thelonious Monk’s “Bemsha Swing” among other cuts, only adds to the feeling Remembrance is like a wink from the other side. 

All instrumental, a combination of in-concert and in-studio performances and comprised only of Corea’s piano and Fleck’s banjo, the LP swings across soundscapes from the formless impromptus (all lower case with subtitles such as “jabberwocky” and “gentleman fish”) to fully formed compositions like Corea’s “The Otter Creek Incident” and Fleck’s “Juno.” 

That these polar extremes are woven throughout the hour-plus runtime, rather than segregated by style, may make it necessary to skip certain tracks in certain listening spaces. But there is nothing unnecessary on Remembrance.