This expansive release captures the late Peter Brötzmann’s very last live performances – four half-hour sets spread over two nights at London’s Cafe OTO in February 2023. It also documents the short-lived reunion of one of his most unpredictable and powerful bands after a break of almost two years. The chemistry between them is gloriously undiminished: each set unfolds with architectural logic, packed with edge-of-the-seat drama, split second changes in direction and wild spontaneous discoveries.

Noble and Edwards, of course, have been brewing densely volatile situations together for years, forging a reputation as probably the most dynamic rhythm section in the UK. Chicagoan vibraphonist Adasiewicz provides a shimmering depth, lending the improvisations an epic scale. Though in poor health, Brötzmann is operating at an astonishingly high level, blowing like a grand revelation of truth. These extraordinary sets seem to propose a brief yet authoritative alternative history of jazz, veering from smouldering blues ballads to tumultuous free-bop and the most incandescent free jazz, by way of entirely uncategorisable interludes.

There’s an unavoidable poignancy, too. Immediately following the final set, Brötzmann’s health went into rapid decline, and he died some four months later. But in these recordings, he remains furiously, eternally alive.