This is a wonderful 2CD album, which documents the cooperation between the iconic British Jazz pianist / composer / improviser Keith Tippett (born 1947) and pianist / composer Matthew Bourne (born 1977), a representative of the new generation of British Jazz. Although separated by a generation gap, the two improvisers felt wonderfully comfortable playing piano duets, which they did during the last three years (2017 – 2019) of Tippett’s activity, cut short by his untimely death in 2020. The first CD presents eight studio recordings by the duo recorded in July 2019, as well as a solo piece by Tippett, which he composed. The second CD presents a live recording by the duo, also from 2019, which sadly was also the last live appearance by Tippett, which comprises of just two lengthy pieces combined into a one continuous stream of music. All the duo performances (studio and live) are credited to both players. Of course piano duets are hardly surprising as far as Tippett is concerned and his epic recordings with Stan Tracey in the 1970s and Howard Riley in the 1990s are absolutely classic examples of the “Art of the Duo” in the piano duet idiom. Although completely improvised, this music has a superb feeling of melody, even if only created subconsciously by the listener’s mind, and the gentle and serene interplays are sublime examples of “less is more”, which let the music flow naturally and coherently, both in the case of the studio recordings and perhaps even more so during the concert performance. The mutual respect and telepathic communication these two musicians share is nothing short of astounding. Our great thanks go to Martin Archer, the owner of Discus Records, for bringing this superb music out in the open for all of us to enjoy and savor. It would have been unthinkable to let it stay in the vaults, especially in view of the fact that this is Tippett’s final statement. Overall, this is a momentous release, not only as far as British Jazz is concerned, but as a brilliant document of Improvised music, which makes perfect sense, can be listened to repeatedly and is extremely aesthetically pleasing, something that happens very rarely within this genre. Essential listening! – Adam Baruch http://www.adambaruch.com/reviews_item.asp?item=106868

Piano duets form an important strand within Tippett’s recorded legacy, as junior partner to Stan Tracey and contemporary of Howard Riley. Now, on this posthumpus release, Matthew Bourne eagerly assumes the tole of mujician’s apprentice. Track titles allude to winds that blow in various parts of the world, the key image being the Aeolian harp, cherished by romantic poets as a metaphor for the flow of inspiration. These inspired duets sound so unforced and unconstrained that they blow fresh life into that well-worn image. From the outset, two quite distinct pianists establish common ground, where they interweave and spring surprises. It’s wonderfully fertile ground too. Strings of scintillating moments bound seamlessly into musical mesh, now mysteriously chromatic, now alluringly melodic, fractiously dissonant, propulsive or ethereal. Tippett’s speaking voice, heard fleetingly, suggests a degree of physical frailty, but at the piano his vitality is undiminished, and as he savours the mujician’s company Bourne’s playing has never sounded finer. – Julian Cowley, THE WIRE

Aeolian is as two disc set. Together they are aural evidence of just how monumental creativity can become. This is determined willpower challenged and held to the strength of its undertaking. At the time of the studio recording Keith Tippett had only one year left to live. By the time of the live concert it was edging nine months. Keith’s health was already worrying and Matthew Bourne should be credited as being one of those important people who encouraged the maestro. He kept the focus alive and when necessary ‘flexed’ around gig cancellations, which Keith hated having to do. Aeolian is remarkable, not only does it give no indication of such a context it is one of the most enthralling recordings in a long list of exemplary lifetime performances. Keith Tippett and Matthew Bourne are totally in touch with each other’s inner muse yet have the indomitable strength of execution to play it out as revelation. In the studio, by the time the two pianists reach the 7th track, Bora, everything they bring as individuals has been assimilated into a whole gigantic roar from a joint spirit. Dissonance and harmony are totally integrated within this huge wall of sound. Anyone listening could be forgiven believing Tippett and Bourne capable of holding back the Valley of The Shadow of Death itself. Ultimately they fail just like we all will, but here in July 2019 it is possible to believe that this is what they will achieve, maybe did achieve for a few months longer. Incredibly some three months later Keith and Matthew go out and play a live set in front of an audience at Union Chapel, London. A concert so utterly convincing, it feels as if time itself has been halted in its tracks. Composing in the moment in front of a live audience is riding the relief and release of inspiration. Within six minutes Tippett/Bourne put down their markers and move into the new territory of this particular piece, now named Sympatico. It is not easy to land on a direction with all the sonic motifs displayed at the exact golden moment but that is what happens here. No wonder Matthew Bourne has expressed his own confidence in these performances. They are works of such power it is hard to comprehend how they were achieved in the prevailing circumstances. To hear both men reaching the heights of their combined genie is mesmerising. I hope someone in the ‘establishment’ media press is listening to Aeolian. By any stretch of the imagination, this double disc package should be Oscar-ed, Mercury-ed and given Platinum status. Some recordings transcend even their own intent, truly this is special. – Steve Day, September 2021

Between 2017 and 2019 pianists Keith Tippett and Matthew Bourne performed a series of two-piano concerts, and this double-disc set documents twp meetings of the duo, both from the last year of their partnership. the disc contains a set of none studio pieces recorded at Leeds Conservatoire, all of which showcase a formidable meeting of musical minds. Such is the level of empathy on display that it’s genuinely difficult to discern with any confidence just who’s doing what. One will declare blunt, emphatic trills, to which the other makes more diaphanous suggestions. Sometimes both get swept up in a whirling liquid vortex. At times it feels as if they are gleefully finishing each other’s sentences. The second disc is a 38-minute live performance captured in London – a non-stop barrage of ideas, beginning with cavernous chords.pinging player-piano complexities and finding room for the occasional dip into the blues. This show turned out to be Tippett’s final public statement before his death in 2020. Its appearance on disc is a fine and fitting tribute to a true original. – Daniel Spicer, JAZZWISE

Pianist Keith Tippett, who died two years ago this month at 72, cast a multifaceted light across the UK jazz scene as a bandleader, improviser and composer of both jazz and contemporary music. A format that he revisited on several occasions was the piano duo, with his first venture being a 1976 encounter with celebrated UK elder Stan Tracey, followed in 1981 by a pairing with peer Howard Riley. His last foray into the configuration was with Matthew Bourne, 30 years his junior, yielding Aeolian, a double album comprising live and studio sessions from 2019. In spite of the generational differences, they constitute an empathetic combination, in which concordance rules, as they change tack in tandem, one finishing the other’s lines. It often sounds like a dialogue taking place where they agree on most things. That is particularly marked on the eight studio duets. But it doesn’t equate to anodyne listening, as the trade in rolling figures, clipped gestures, unconventional textures, music box sonorities and more arrives complete with departures into the unexpected, as when Tippett’s clanking modifications insert a dose of magic or Bourne’s sudden staccato motifs break up the flow. The first disc finishes with a beautiful elegiac torch song extemporized by Tippett alone who, when someone in the studio asks what that was, replies self-deprecatingly with what became the title: Oh just “Something I Made Up”. While on the studio date the references that come to mind are as often classical— minimalism, Satie, Beethoven, Cage—as jazz, on the single 38-minute concert track they are more jazz adjacent, angular and rhythmic, touching on country blues, bop and folk. It is a mesmerizing double act. – John Sharpe, New York City Jazz Record, http://www.nycjazzrecord.com/

Martin Archer’s Discus Music continues its run of Keith Tippett releases with Aeolian, documenting Keith’s collaboration with fellow pianist Matthew Bourne which started in 2017 and ran until Keith’s untimely death last year. Aeolian is a 2 disc set made up of both studio recordings and a live set from London’s Union Chapel in October 2019 which proved to be Keith’s final concert performance. Disc 1 was recorded over 2 days at Leeds Conservatoire and consists of 8 duo pieces, all named after winds from various parts of the world plus a short solo piece by Keith to close out part 1. Etesians opens with a staccato flurry of notes and sets the tone for what proves to be an absorbing and immersing ride through everything from light zephyrs to howling gales and this continues throughout. Bise sees both Tippett and Bourne delving into the inner workings of their instruments; Bourne plucking and bending strings while Tippett modulates the sound of his instrument with his customary array of wood blocks and toys. Buran opens in imposing fashion with Tippett opting for a heavy left hand presence. All is not doom and gloom though and there are many lighter touches and even the odd snatch of humour here and there. I did wonder whether I was wise listening to this recording on the morning that hurricane Ida made landfall in New Orleans, and listening to Bora confirmed my suspicions. The piece seemed to encapsulate what was happening in Louisiana. Threatening at the start, one could almost see the storm building on the horizon, followed by the devastation as the wind blasts through the city before finally continuing on its journey leaving behind scenes of carnage. In contrast Samoon opens with Tippett playing variations on the 1st movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata with Bourne improvising gentle melodies which increase in intensity before gradually subsiding as the storm abates and the opening theme returns. The first disc closes with Something I Made Up, an exquisitely beautiful solo improvisation by Keith which restores calm after the intensity of all that has gone before. The live recording on Disc 2 was the final performance from a series that had started almost 12 months earlier at Marsden Jazz Festival and I was privileged to be part of the team that officiated on the day. That gig was Keith’s first in 11 months the pair gave a breathtaking performance on that occasion. A year on and it is remarkable how much the pair’s musical relationship has developed. The unbelievable level of cohesion in this improvised performance is remarkable. Changes of mood occur in an instant with some passages having a playful, almost nursery rhyme quality. The levels of almost telepathic understanding are astounding and remind me very much of Keith’s long standing collaboration with Stan Tracey. Sympatico / Trade Winds clocks in at just over 36 minutes – around the same as the Marsden performance – and marks the final moments of Keith’s long and illustrious career as a live performer and it is fitting that this piece ends literally on a high note. Aeolian, which will be released on 1 October is a wonderful and fitting memorial to Tippett’s genius as a performer, and highlights Matthew Bourne’s talents as a secure keeper of the flame for the future. Five Stars – Pete Woodman, EMULIJAZZ

At Keith Tippett’s invitation, Matthew Bourne first paired up with him in 2016, the duo performing live for the first time at the London Jazz Festival in 2017. Almost all the music they made together was documented on audio and film, the most memorable moments of which appear on this double CD set. The first CD is a studio set from Leeds, the second a live set from London; both date from 2019. The eight shorter pieces on the Leeds set show well how the two pianists interact, their equally percussive styles nevertheless leaving the other plenty of space for manoeuvre. They also develop a widely varied palette of sounds and effects that they put to consistently creative use. The opening Etesians is hard and combative, while in Buran, the two circle each other with great respect, coaxing out gentle melodies and lullaby-like refrains that slowly develop a harder edge. In contrast, Brickfielder is flurry of cascading notes and heavy chordal interventions while Sirocco conjures up a proverbial blast of virtuosic performance. Bise is full of empty space, quiet interventions inside the piano lid and high-register keyboard notes creating an eerie soundscape that gradually builds up a repetitive momentum. Of all the pieces, Bora is the most abstract, dark, rolling arpeggios matched by an internal sawing at the strings that combine to chilling effect. Samoon ends the duos in almost romantic fashion, the two pianists waltzing together warily, while the brief Tippett solo Something I Made Up is nostalgic in its reverie. The continuous live set from the echoing Union Chapel starts slowly, once again the pianists getting to know each other. And then it menacingly opens up as torrents of notes pour down before more angular, aggressive passages appear that in turn give way to bowed notes and percussive noises from Keith that usher in a beautiful melody of delicate precision. What stands out here, as on the studio set, is that while the music threatens towards the atonal and dissonant, the two just about remain within harmonic bounds, creating a harsh, multi-faceted beauty that is compelling to listen to. But it is also poignant, for the live performance was Keith’s last public appearance, as he died in June 2020. This is a magisterial way to remember him. – Simon Adams, JAZZ JOURNAL https://jazzjournal.co.uk/2021/11/01/keith-tippett-matthew-bourne-aeolian/

This is a recording of two pianists working with some high cohesion vibes. I don’t know either’s playing well enough to pick them apart. I also don’t know how composed Aeolian is. For where it gathers density, in an ebb and flow of intensities over clear pulses, there’s a feeling that it could be highly composed — as with opener “Etesians”. By the same token, that same piece seems to pivot around someone introducing a melody from one of those piano pieces everyone can play. One piano is enough of a sound to quickly get very dense, so maybe the most remarkable thing about this music — and doubly so if it’s entirely improvised — is the restraint each player offers. There’s only so many sections where they’re playing in the same register and it’s only fleetingly; despite that there’s always a clear pulse and rhythmic variations, thereupon keeping the whole thing moving. Two players at the top of their game, basically, and some incredibly tasteful listening. Sadly this transpires to be Tippett’s last recording, but it’s quite a monument to his playing, right to the end — even if I can’t pick his voice out, this is some gorgeous music. Light and refined and fun and playful — there’s a music box “Love Me Tender” they extemporise over — twice — and a brilliantly warped improvisation on “Moonlight Sonata” (“Samoon”). It’s also got curious shape — the first part is a series of studio-recorded shorter pieces and the last thirty-eight minutes is a live show. So the recorded part runs the gamut of some industrial-for-piano / Iannis Xenakis in a bad mood rackets (“Bora”), to more conventional (albeit wonky) jazzisms (“Mistral”). The live show… well, it’s quite astonishing, a real tour de force of virtuosity, careful listening and inventive playing. – Kev Nickells, FREQ

Aeolian presents Tippett in a piano duo with MATTHEW BOURNE….. The piano double was partly created in July 2019 in the studio in Leeds and partly live on 12.10.2019 in the Union Chapel in London, as it turned out, as Tippett’s last public appearance. Eight winds harp the keys, with flickering pianissimo breath and crystalline tingling or tooth-wheeled purring and clinking, in shady heaviness, lyrical hovering, deliberate and restrained, permeated by melancholy and longing, by glass hardness, airy mildness, in sparkling flow, lively haste, wiry waving, grumbling, spinning, music box-delicate touching, even limping a little dance. Beauty and melancholy as icy twins. The concertante ‘Sympatico / Trade Winds’ emerges entirely from this feeling, from crystalline sparkling melancholy, pointed dancing in delicately clanging arpeggio garlands, tripping and in 3/4 time, rhapsody-in-bluesy, arm in arm, with pathetic beats, grumpy and lively rummaging, tightly gradual, in repetitions grazing on wires and moody tempo changes, with clinking sprinkles, harnessing handles into the inner piano, dark loops and drones, rattling shaker. From uncanny discord, bitter dreariness and goblin quirky tingling turbulence are released. The music box plays its earworm again, but it is slowly cranked, arpeggiovirtuos drowned out, danced over in a spring-sacrificial way. But melancholy lays softly and gently on the hands and finally dictates an upwards in the light striving etc… But you can just bow to Tippett. Simply divine. – BAD ALCHEMY

Featuring Keith Tippett and Matthew Bourne both on pianos. One disc was recorded live and one disc recorded in a studio. Thanks to the ever-prolific UK sax colossus, Paul Dunmall, for turning us all on to a long list of British musicians, known and often little-known. I first became aware of UK pianist Matthew Bourne through a couple of excellent trio CD’s on the Edition & Foghorn labels beginning around 2011. That trio (with Steve Davis & Dave Kane) soon started to work with Paul Dunmall for a couple of discs for FMR. Mr. Bourne also recorded a couple of fine duo CD’s with Frank Vigroux (French avant guitarist) and Dave Stapleton (British pianist & head of Edition Records). Matt Bourne also came to NYC and visited the store quite a while back. It turned out that Mr. Bourne was also a John Zorn freak and had studied Zorn’s music in great depth. Bourne and I attended a Zorn duo gig at the old Stone so I introduced Bourne to Zorn in the basement of the Stone. Mr. Zorn was so much impressed with Mr. Bourne’s knowledge & questions about Zorn’s composing & playing, he invited Mr. Bourne to sit in with the duo that night. Hence the one & only trio performance by Andrea Centazzo on percussion, John Zorn on alto sax and Matt Bourne on piano. A spur of the moment idea that worked out quite well. Mr. Tippett and Mr. Bourne both played at the Herts Jazz Fest in 2016, met backstage and talked, Mr. Tippett asking if Mr. Bourne wanted to do a piano duo sometime. Bourne happily agreed and their first performance took place at the London Jazz Festival in 2017. Both the studio date (at The Venue in Leeds) and the live date (Union Chapel in London) were recorded in 2019. I’ve been fortunate to have caught Mr. Tippett live around 10 times (in London in late ’75, at the old Knit in the 90’s, at the Victo Fest 3 times & in London in 2016). Mr. Tippett likes to use small percussive utensils inside the piano as we can see in the inclosed picture, as well as hanging a small collection of bells from the piano lid. I especially like the these two gifted pianists from different generations play together. They listen closely, take their time and work together magically, giving each other space to be themselves while weaving their lines around one another. Most of the pieces on the studio disc are not too long hence they sound more concise. Mr. Tippett has a distinctive way of muting notes by placing his hand or an object on the strings inside the piano. The second piece, “Bise”, sounds like both pianists are muting their strings together, the overall effect is striking. Midway through “Buran”, the tempo escalates and we find ourselves in the distinctive Tippett Terrain, where there are a number of furious lines spinning quickly together. Both pianists are playing so the lines are crisscrossing, the excitement factor increases higher. There are a number of moments/segments that are astonishing where both musicians are tossing lines back and forth and adding unexpected punctuation here and there. I’ve heard a number of piano duo records in the past but nothing really compares to this one. Just incredible! – Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG

Beautifully recorded, ‘Aeolian’ is a piano lover’s delight. ‘Etesians’ comfortably occupies the space provided by its eight minute length, dreamlike flurries of clouds, or snow, appear in the mind’s eye, fragments of grand themes appearing fleetingly, tantalisingly, it’s mostly about the notes rather than the chords, the touch, the texture, the resonance. Some thoughtful bluesy brooding darkens the clouds and, as quickly as it began, it is over, giving way to ‘Bise’, of similar length, rippling of the top notes building anticipation accompanied by what sounds like the rapid tapping of a piano lid and strings. ‘Buran’ is longer and gargantuan by comparison. So fast are the arpeggios and solos that the impression given is of a swarm of bees on ‘Brickfielder’ although the title suggests something different. Bora’ is an inventive and imaginative modern classical piece conjuring up images of a relentless piece of machinery, perhaps a steam train, both pianos producing an incredible deluge of sound. Necessary respite is given with ‘Samoon’, the ballad that follows which may be a hybrid derivation of ‘Moonlight Sonata’. I also thought I heard a music box being improvised over at one point on the CD. The second CD is one long piece (‘Sympatico/ Trade Winds’) recorded at Union Chapel in London in December, 2019 and a fitting swansong for Keith who sadly passed last year. Playful snippets are scattered through the music, ‘Bobby Shaftoe’, playground taunts, with meandering up and down the sonic range of the piano in thunderous steps, with deft soloing midriffs, mazy runs, a quintuplet of notes forming a rare ‘riff’, all parts of the piano employed including strings to create a harp-like effect, and even some atmospherics that might be mistaken for electronica. A beauteous passage of play appears on 20 minutes but the music is quixotic, ideas come and go like ships in the night, Waterfalls of notes and an extraordinary finale round off an exceptional piece. – Phil Jackson, ACID DRAGON

À l’issue d’une série de concerts en duo, entreprise deux ans plus tôt, les deux pianistes nous livrent ce témoignage, en studio à Leeds, et en concert à Londres. Riche et passionnant dialogue entre deux musiciens qui, s’ils appartiennent à des générations différentes, ont l’un et l’autre tracé des voies singulières. Pour l’aîné, disparu l’an dernier, un parcours qui va du pharaonique big band ‘Centipede’ (50 musiciens = 100 pieds….) à des compositions pour quatuor à cordes en passant par le groupe King Crimson, le free jazz, Robert Wyatt, et j’en oublie…. Et pour le plus jeune toutes les aventures du jazz contemporain et de la musique improvisée, de Barre Phillips, Marc Ribot ou John Zorn à Laurent Dehors…. Une musique très vivante, audacieuse, libre mais richement pourvue de références. Et une richesse d’interaction remarquable, portée par une maîtrise des instruments (le son, la dynamique, le phrasé, les couleurs harmoniques….) qui force l’admiration. À découvrir d’urgence ! – Xavier Préost http://lesdnj.over-blog.com/2021/12/keith-tippett-matthew-bourne-aeolian.html

Here we have the fourth Keith Tippett release for Discus Music. It started with the release of ‘The Nine Dances of Patrick O’Gonogon’ in 2016, followed by the rerelease of his solo album from 1980 ‘The Unlonely Raindancer’ (2019). In 2020 ‘The Monk Watches the Eagle’ was released. And now we are speaking of a double cd with piano duets of Tippett and Matthew Bourne. Both played in jazz, improvisation and contemporary fields and knew one other already for 20 years when on a meeting in 2016, Tippett asked, ‘how about a duet sometime?’ John Cumming, a close friend of Tippett, made the first duo-concert possible with a 2017 London Jazz Festival concert. This collaboration would last to near the end of 2019. The first cd presents eight duets recorded in a studio in Leeds on July 8 and 9, 2019. A crystal clear recording. All titles are composed by Tippett and Bourne except the last track, ‘Something I made up’, a short solo piece by Tippett. The second cd offers a live recording of one 38-minute session in London on October 12 that same year, which turned out to be Tippett’s last concert. He passed away on June 14th, 2020. So both recordings took place after two years of regular playing. On both occasions, they cite now and then certain idioms and styles and even melodies. Still, overall, the music makes the impression of abstract modern classical piano music that could be composed or improvised. The performance is intense and concentrated. The performers play in a complementary and similar vein. The music constantly changes in dynamics and moves in many different directions. But always very cohesive and strongly intertwined. Expressive and never indecisive. An impressive document! – Dolf Mulder, VITAL WEEKLY

Tra il 2017 e il 2019, Keith Tippett e Matthew Bourne eseguirono una serie di concerti per due pianoforti – quasi tutti registrati. Questo doppio album della Discus Music presenta due performance del 2019: una serie di singoli pezzi in studio registrati al Leeds Conservatoire e un concerto dal vivo alla Union Chapel di Londra (purtroppo l’ultima apparizione pubblica di Tippett). Un disco doppio caratterizzato da una malinconica, nostalgica bellezza: un esempio dell’arte del duo pianistico. Tremolanti respiri si fondono a una trattenuta ombrosa pesantezza, a una ariosa mitezza, nonché al flusso vivace del brontolio di un carrillon, un effetto che Tippett ottiene usando piccoli oggetti percussivi all’interno del pianoforte e appendendo un set di campane al coperchio del pianoforte. I brani del primo disco, registrato in studio, sono perledalla durata breve. Raffiche delicate, eppure materiche, compongono frammenti di temi in Etesians, dove a dominare sono il tocco e la risonanza. Dopo un barlume bluseggiante si parte Bise, il cui effetto complessivo è notevole: è come se entrambi i pianisti silenziassero insieme le loro corde. Buran è tipicamente “tippettesco”, con un vortice di linee melodiche che girano furiosamente insieme. Bora è un classico pezzo moderno, inventivo e fantasioso, dove il diluvio sonoro dei due pianoforti evoca l’immagine di una macchina. L’agognata tregua è data dall’eco della Moonlight Sonata che si ascolta nella ballata Samoon. Il secondo CD è un lungo brano live: Sympatico/ Trade Winds. È il canto del cigno di Tippett. Frammenti giocosi sono sparsi attraverso la musica. Abili assoli e grappoli di note e suoni (anche le corde vengono usate dai due pianisti) vengono a comporre un effetto di arpa (eolica appunto); a un certo punto si ascolta, se si fa attenzione, l’eco di una Love me tender in sottofondo, e a tratti emergono atmosfere che potrebbero dirsi elettroniche, ma sono senz’altro, orgogliosamente, acustiche. Un’importante testimonianza. – A G Bertinetto, KATHODIK

There is something special at play here, with space sitting alongside the two pianists to ensure its contribution is felt and not overlooked. This is not music to just listen to, but rather is music to fall inside, to let the musicians take us where they wish and while we do not know the destination or the way to get there, neither do they, but instead are also there for the ride. The final piece on this album is nearly 40 minutes long, with Tippett and Bourne very much in the moment and the crowd is perfectly quiet as they also understand they are witnessing a very special event indeed. – Kev Rowland, House Of Prog https://houseofprog.com/blog/2022/08/16/keith-tippett-matthew-bourne-aeolian-2021/

This double album set comes as Discus Records’ fourth and sadly final instalment from avant-jazz piano maestro Keith Tippett, a bandleader/arranger whose back catalogue (see Ovary Lodge, Keith Tippett’s Ark etc), never seems to date/grate and always captivates. And let’s not forget to mention that fractured piano break of his which catapulted Crimso’s “Cat Food” into another dimension. Meanwhile, with a tick-list that takes in releases on Leaf and Foghorn records, alongside collaborations with Annette Peacock and John Zorn, one-time ‘Perrier Young Jazz Musician of the Year’, Matthew Bourne met up with Keith at 2016’s Herts Jazz Festival. A casual remark from the latter about possible duo performances was leapt on and their debut public performance followed at the 2017 London Jazz Festival. After, they performed/recorded a number of dual piano concerts. This being the first time that Keith had played in that kind of set-up since the T.N.T. album recorded on Steam Records, back in 1976. Aeolian is split into two halves: ‘Studio’ (from ‘The Venue’, Leeds, July 2019) and ‘Live’ (‘Union Chapel’, London, October 2019). The first nine studio pieces are named after certain winds of many nations. From the ‘Etesians’ to the ‘Mistral’ and from the ‘Bora’ to the Satie-esque ‘Samoon’, finger-crippling jazz runs effortlessly shift towards contempo-classical stabs and elegiac lyricism. For me, ‘Bise’ remains uppermost after several plays in which some internal piano plucks and scrapes dissolve to reveal a generous scattering of spectral high-end trills. Magical. Expertly recorded before a reverential gathering, the live disc contains one cut, clearly separated into two movements (“Sympatico”/”Trade Winds”) and clocks in at a stamina-sapping thirty-six minutes. Images and sounds flood the mind in quick succession, referencing child’s musical boxes, fairground calliopes, stray blues licks, a potential Dr. Caligari soundtrack and insistent portents of impending doom. It’s pretty easy to imagine the two of them hammering away in the orchestra pit, while above them, flickering images of criminal beastliness are shown to an nervy, edge-of-the-seat audience. Will Pearl White (a.k.a. “Pauline” of “The Perils of…”) be rescued from the railway tracks in the very nick of time?? More magic. While not wishing to derail Matthew’s massive contribution in the slightest, Aeolian shows itself to be a fine and fitting testament to a sorely missed major talent in Keith Tippett (1947-2020). And by sheer happenstance (?), it’s a recording that neatly bookends the mighty (in sound and personnel) Centipede’s Septober Energy which Esoteric Records have recently seen to reissue as an attractively presented double c.d. set. – Steve Pescott, SOUND PROJECTOR