6.

Irene Schweizer – Piano Solo Vol. 1

I was in catering backstage at a festival in Berne talking to Oxbow’s old tour manager right after doing vocals for this band called Steamboat Switzerland. My attitude to the set was, ‘Free jazz. Yeah, I get it. I kind of dig it. Right. But is there any free jazz that isn’t noisy?’ And he pointed at someone and replied: ‘Yeah, she makes it.’ And Irene Schweizer was there, this old lady with grey hair who waved at us. He sent me a bunch of her music but I didn’t really listen to it. Then I got this fellowship in Marseilles to write this play, The Inimitable Sounds Of Love: A Threesome In Four Acts and I listened to nothing but Schweizer. There had been some language confusion and I thought they were providing food and board but it turned out it was just board – who gives someone a place to stay and doesn’t fucking feed them? – so I just fasted. And after a few days I was just getting cold and dizzy, ensconced in this room, writing to Schweizer and it was revelatory. Her music takes the ethos of free jazz and slows it down.