Andreas Schaerer is his own immaculate improvisatory creation, uniquely evolved from scat and vocalese into vocal flights equal to the finest instrumentalists. His band Hildegard Lernt Fliegen are now one of many diverse settings, from The Big Wig’s orchestral improv to his Out of Land band and album with Emile Parisien, Vincent Peirani and Michael Wollny, together comprising much of European jazz’s non-Nordic possibility.

An early duo with drummer Lucas Niggli grew into a quartet with accordionist Luciano Biondini and guitarist Kalle Kalima on A Novel of Anomaly (2018). This sequel mostly mutes Schaerer’s overt punk wildness. Instead he finds modest radicalism in abandoning lead singer and linguistic conventions to sink into the group, and create sounds which suggest Italian, say, while abandoning vocabulary. The songs envision a “utopian, inclusive society,” he says, “using a new, free, imaginary language unlimited by origin or cultural boundaries”. It’s a sort of jazz EU even as the real thing shudders in a chilly new world, and allows total vocal improv.

The sunny brightness of ‘Siesta in Utopia’ and jagged prog of ‘Magma Mia’ alternate with frequent wistfulness. Schaerer switches from melancholy ‘vocalese trumpet’ on ‘Eglised by the Moon’ to punchy yodels on ‘Bad Eye’, egging on Kalima’s liberated, agile 1970s riffs. The title track is, though, seven slow, sombre minutes of ritualistic chants and probing guitar.

The album is bracketed by bittersweet Old World beauty. ‘St John’s Passion’ sees Schaerer display his conventionally fine voice, crooning with Italianate intimacy and conveying tenderness beyond words. ‘Sogna Belini’ could be a Neapolitan folk song, conjured from Southern Europe’s heart and sparked by slow, spinning accordion and Niggli’s subdued swing. There’s a sense of poignant sorrow and a better world, of European verities refined to their essence.