Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer has been a towering figure of European free jazz for six decades – often compared with Cecil Taylor, but though she possesses much of the late American legend's blistering technique and impetuous improvisational drive, she has embraced more explicit references to the jazz tradition over the years, from ragtime to Monk, Carla Bley, or Abdullah Ibrahim. Schweizer has also been an inspired collaborator with drummers (she's a pretty good one herself) in an intimate improv-duo format she has favoured for years.

This concert from Austria's 2019 Nickelsdorf Konfrontationen festival with Chicago percussionist and frequent partner Hamid Drake marked the pianist's 80th birthday – and was apparently embarked on in a fierce Schweizer mood since the pair had not been able to get onstage until midnight, but the delay seems to have done nothing but good. Schweizer darts, chord-clangs, and unleashes streams of detailed melody against Drake's racing patterns and exclamatory smacks before withdrawing to quiet contemplation and then amiably bouncing swing on ‘A Former Dialogue’, grooves in a bluesily muscular Ibrahim manner on ‘The Good Life’, and shares skittering under-the-lid pluckings and edgily scuttling percussion with Drake on ‘Stringfever’. An enthrallingly churning South African townships tribute to the late bassist Johnny Dyani on ‘Song For Johnny’ is a highlight, but there are plenty. Intakt's editor Patrik Landolt reportedly said he’d never had to shorten so much prolonged applause on a release, and it's no surprise.