''Ulrichsberg'' is a live album by pianist

Irène Schweizer Irène Schweizer (born 2 June 1941) is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvis ...

and drummer

Pierre Favre Peter Faber (french: Pierre Lefevre or Favre, la, Petrus Faver) (13 April 1506 – 1 August 1546) was a Jesuit priest and theologian, who was also a co-founder of the Society of Jesus, along with Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier. Pope Fra ...

. It was recorded in May 2003 at Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon in Austria, and was released by

Intakt Records Intakt Records is an independent record label, based in Zürich. History The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.Margasak, Peter (September 2013) "Intakt's Landolt Takes Long-Term Approach to Avant-Garde". ''Down Beat''. p. 16. In the ea ...

in 2004. Schweizer and Favre first met at the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

in 1966, and have been playing together in a variety of contexts since then.

Reception

In a review for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

John Fordham John Fordham (died 1425) was Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Ely. Fordham was keeper of the privy seal of Prince Richard from 1376 to 1377 and Dean of Wells before being named Lord Privy Seal in June 1377. He held that office until December 1381 ...

wrote: "A hard-hitting pianist who also brings delicacy and shape to unstructured music, Schweizer ripples seamlessly throughout. She lets Favre fill shrewdly scattered open spaces, powers into jazzy pulses, disappears into quiet meditations, broods in booming chords, and delivers as dazzling a display as any in her field... The kind of free jazz that makes the idiom new friends, and likely to be one of the albums of the year." The authors of the ''

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'' awarded the album 4 stars, and stated: "one marvels at... the clarity and purpose in the playing. There's no clatter or rhetorical fog; both musicians call on their powers of instinct and intellect to divine a music which sounds deep and complex and at the same moment entirely transparent. Irène says how much she delights in 'our joy in playing', and there's scarcely a moment here where that isn't manifest."

Track listing

# "Twin Dialogue" – 15:14 # "It's About Time" – 12:02 # "Ulrich, Ulrich, Der Wagen Bricht! (Dedicated To Peter Kowald)" – 10:18 # "Unwritten Messages" – 6:56 # "Nomades" – 8:56 # "Waltz For Lois" – 5:25

Personnel

– piano *

– drums

References

{{Reflist 2004 live albums Intakt Records live albums Irène Schweizer live albums Pierre Favre (musician) albums