Vincent Peirani is one of several younger musicians who have brought a new vibrancy to the current Parisian jazz scene.

Astonishingly accomplished, his ability on the accordion transcends the instrument itself; not the most popular instrument in jazz I grant you, but in Peirani's hands it really does become something else and besides, what other instrument sounds so quintessentially French? Live he has the priceless ability to communicate with his audience, which he does with charm and wit. While Richard Galliano can be a full-on accordion virtuosity, Peirani is more nuanced, more inclined to mesmerise his audiences than bowling them over.

This is a guy with a different kind of wow factor. Until now his recordings have not quite captured the sheer brio of his playing, but in duet with Michael Wollny – voted the European Jazz Musician of the Year by the Académie du Jazz – he interacts with a talent as mercurial – albeit quite different – as his own. Tandem is an album that seems crammed with highlights – some small, detailed yet exquisite, others more forthrightly proclaimed. An eclectic mixture of originals and repertoire harvested from further afield, such as Björk's ‘Hunter’, Samuel Barber's ‘Adagio for Strings’, and the Argentinian guitarist and composer Tomás Gubitsch's ‘Travesuras’, this collision of two highly inventive and original musical minds is never less than interesting, and at best wholly absorbing.