Prelude to a Kiss and More shows Irene Schweizer at the height of her powers, in February 1986 in Zurich. With her exuberance, her improvisational skill, her powerful touch and her sense of style, this recording documents a climax in the pianist's oeuvre. And with it's strong relationship to jazz history, the album sets an important note in the pianist's discography. In few other recordings can you hear Irene Schweizer's connection to American jazz as clearly as in this concert tape. Just back from her six-month stay in New York, Irene Schweizer played in addition to her own compositions, jazz standards by Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, and Duke Ellington. George Lewis, trombonist and professor at New York's Columbia University, described Irene Schweizer as an "Afrodiasporic musician", and as "post-European." She did not set boundaries between jazz traditions, South-African inspiration, free jazz and European-influenced improvisation. In the physical power of the moment, which no art form achieves like free improvisation, Irene Schweizer gave expression to her lived emotion. This landmark solo recording from 1986, the year Intakt Records was founded, celebrates the Zurich-based label's 40th anniversary.

Piano-Drums Duos are the preferred playing arrangement of pianist Irene Schweizer. Her mastery of duets with important drummers of contemporary jazz are documented on numerous Intakt CDs. Han Bennink, Pierre Favre, Louis Moholo, Gu¨nter Baby Sommer, Andrew Cyrille and Joey Baron among them. The Chicago drummer Hamid Drake, born in 1955, and Irene Schweizer, born in 1941, have performed together on numerous occasions both in Europe and Chicago. Together they have appeared on the Intakt CD "Irene Schweizer-Fred Anderson-Hamid Drake". At the 40th anniversary festival "Kontrontationen in Nickelsdorf" (Austria), Schweizer and Drake were the highlight of the event. A celebration of the moment and a declaration of love to South African songs along with their thrilling energy and rhythmic lightness produced a firework of improvisation. A parade of successful interplay. The CD Celebration is released on the occasion of Irene Schweizer's 80th birthday (2. Juni), accompanied by a catalogue of the pianist's works on Intakt Records.

Irene Schweizer and Han Bennink like to play together - you can hear it in every note. After a tour of Switzerland, the two went straight in the recording studio. The result is a stunning second album: "Welcome Back". The music moves between freely improvised pieces, beautiful jazz standards, and songs influenced by South-African melodies which are a trademark of Irene Schweizer (such as her classics 'Rag" and 'Bleu Fonce"). Schweizer says: "Han and I are soul-brother and soul-sister. We have the same taste and rhythmical feelings in jazz music." As Kevin Whitehead points out in the liner notes: "Hard to believe this is only the second Irene Schweizer-Han Bennink duo album, given how much they share, how far back they go, and how obviously they love playing together. But then, top improvisers have hectic schedules. Folks talk about how loud Han can be, how ruthless with duo partners, but this music confirms his sensitivity to dynamics in conversational playing, his generosity in support, his eagerness to hear his partner's views." The two share the same sense of play, lyricism, swing feeling, percussive clarity and historical grounding. A masterpiece!