Every solo concert by Abdullah Ibrahim is a journey, a pianistic monologue that tells stories from past and present and combines them with the skill of a master narrator. This one is more of a solo than customary, made in the resonant acoustic of the Hirzinger Hall in Reidering, Germany, because it was recorded during lockdown restrictions with no audience, at the time that would normally be his annual birthday concert.

And it’s a journey as every bit as fascinating and absorbing as his 2019 solo album Dream Time. It is instructive to hear the two records side by side, as fragments of melodies that have a special resonance for him, such as ‘Blue Bolero’, slide in and out of both sequences (more than once), and ‘Dream Time’ itself reappears on the new record.

His liner note is more than usually reflective and autobiographical, focusing on his fingers, and particularly the index finger – which he relates to his great grandfather revealing the essence of the Kalahari landscape by pointing with his finger at the plants and animals. Like the notes, the album itself has its autobiographical moments, revisiting both ‘District Six’ and his famous ‘Blues for a Hip King’, but also bringing us the contemplations of genius in his late eighties who is as great a communicator now as at any time in his long career. This is a record to hear in one long sitting, tracing his journey in all its detail, and remembering each of the themes that he weaves past us, as they will surely reappear, changed and rethought, as the journey progresses. A masterly achievement.