This is the second album from the US-Scottish duo of Marilyn Crispell and Raymond MacDonald, partly recorded in the studio and partly live, at the Vortex in East London. Crispell, who has long been resident in Woodstock, New York, earned her spurs with Anthony Braxton; MacDonald, who is based in Glasgow, is a professor at Glasgow Caledonian University and an influential presence on the Scottish jazz scene. What they have in common above all is the spirit of improvisation. As the New York Times said of Crispell: “Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano. She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz.” There are some notable eruptions here, not least during the 13-minute ‘Vortex’, an explosion of squawks, honks and clatters, which directly precedes the lovely and extremely restrained version of the traditional tune ‘We Are Going’. The music is part-composed, part-improvised, and combines tenderness and asperity in a thoroughly engaging manner.