You can already hear the first notes of 'Speaking Sound': With German piano great Joachim Kühn and Mateusz Smoczyński, the violinist of the highly acclaimed Polish "Atom String Quartet", two musicians have come together who, without many words, click in a real magical way and inspire each other to explore the full range of their musical possibilities - from rich and beautiful melodies, to free outbursts of energy. Chamber jazz without borders.

French saxophonist Émile Parisien, instigator of some of the most musical, formidably skilful yet wackily diverting adventures in recent European jazz, makes a rare UK visit in a duo at November’s London jazz festival, but this exuberant album rams home the full Parisien experience, with a new quintet, regular accordion partner Vincent Peirani, and two revered European elder statesmen in German pianist Joachim Kühn and French bass clarinet original Michel Portal. From the opening vibrato-trembling soprano sax Préambule (Parisien can be a spiky avantist, but he’s a devoted Sidney Bechet admirer, too), through the hard-swinging Poulp – which sounds like the work of a 21st-century Hot Club band with Ornette Coleman leanings – through the contemporary-noir doom-walk of Brainmachine or the accordion-throbbing Umckaloabo, Parisien leads an exhilarating genre-hop bubbling with captivating remakes of US and European jazz traditions. And Kühn, a majestic soloist inside or outside conventional harmony, sounds as if he’s been an instantly responsive communicator with this lineup – and particularly the leader – for years.

Krzysztof Komeda has legendary status in Polish jazz, and was also one of the pioneers of European jazz. His wider fame resides largely in his work as a film composer – he wrote the soundtracks for all of Roman Polanski’s early films, notably "Dance of the Vampires" and "Rosemary's Baby". Komeda died in 1969, tragically early, at the age of just 37, but left a hugely influential body of work. Joachim Kühn, now a jazz piano icon in his own right, is a great admirer of Komeda, whom he met in person in Warsaw in 1965. As part of the Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic concert series, curated by Siggi Loch, he performed a major tribute concert to him on 14 October 2022, at which he played in three formats: solo piano, with his New Trio, and alongside Poland’s Atom String Quartet.

A tasty trio date from this under-recognized pianist, accompanied by the fine rhythm tandem of J.F. Jenny-Clark and Daniel Humair. The album leaps into gear with the fiery "Guylene," a piece that finds Kuhn sounding like Hancock or Jarrett at their most aggressive, his bright tone cascading throughout. He has an innate lyricism that, in his softer moments, recalls Paul Bley.

The youthful old jazz master has a new dream team: clear, with buckets of soul and unconfined joy, solidly grounded in the groove, this trio has a way of going straight to the heart of the matter.

If we are part and product of chance, should we play with it? Having worked together for many years as musician and sound engineer, two improvisers break out of their comfort zones. Piano icon Joachim Kühn and electronica experimentalist Klaus Scheuermann alias „Trummerschlunk“ explore the potential of the unlikely: a collaboration across generations, genre boundaries, and long established professional roles.