Tom Constanten was a member of the Grateful Dead for just a little more than a year, November 1968 to January 1970, but in that time, his classically informed keyboards gave the band a richer, more cultured feel. Bob Bralove was the Dead’s sound tech beginning in the late ‘80s and is also an accomplished keyboardist. As Dose Hermanos, the two have created improvisational psychedelic music for years, but Batique is another approach altogether, their “unplugged” effort of sorts. Performing solely on grand pianos placed in separate rooms—each player had headphones—Constanten and Bralove emerge as a single, 176-keyed organism, their explorations ranging from relaxed and regal to dissonant and fierce. There’s a pronounced empathy within their collaboration throughout—an innate knowing that envelops the listener wholly.