Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

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.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Lord Spikeheart, Tom Ravenscroft
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