Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny are unmistakable and fundamentally different in every respect. This is also a significant part of what they have in common. Both are outstanding virtuosos without stylistic restrictions in the most diverse areas of contemporary music. Both have an alert and enormously creative mind, the virtue of being able to listen and the confidence that enables them to do the right thing at the right moment and surprise their duo partner and sometimes even themselves. Their duo work began in October 2008 with the recording of the album "Piano Works IX: Live At Schloss Elmau". At the time, the Südwestpresse called it a "stroke of luck for jazz and new music." Now, almost 15 years later, the two pianists have come together again. What can you hear now and what does it sound like? The album documents the concert in the Alte Oper Frankfurt on January 23, 2023 in its essential phases. Nothing has been faked, nothing has been glossed over, only the order has been changed at one point. Intermediate applause did not have to be laboriously cut out, because the extremely attentive and captivated audience took a second between the end of each piece and the applause. This points to the enormous intensity of the concert. You can hear two improvising pianists who are in consensus with each other wordlessly and in a very fundamental and even detailed way. They have long since left behind any sneaking around, feeling each other out and getting to know each other for the first time. Who know from the very first moment what they have in common, what they are willing and able to trust and expect of each other. They take their time and give each other time, they don't put each other under pressure and are happy to accompany each other for a while. Whose play sometimes almost seems to merge. But they also don't hold back with their own directional decisions and create contrasts, the other will know what to do. They work on the music together like two sculptors on the same sculpture. Sometimes everything is very clear, sometimes it's impossible to tell who's in front and who's behind, who's playing on the left and who's on the right. Neither of them seem particularly interested in the old jazz question "Is this still jazz?". With the first Blue Note, they can take their time until the fourth piece (Ornette Coleman's "Somewhere") without keeping anyone waiting in vain. Both follow, condensed, virtuosic and inspired, a practice called "fantasizing" in European piano music, which seems to have been out of fashion for over a century, which is why it had to be revived with the energy of jazz. You can hear two musicians whose paths diverge again and again, only to meet again and play a requiem for Joachim's brother Rolf together at the end. Of course it's jazz, what else.