Listening to Anja Lechner and François Couturier’s Moderato Cantabile (ECM New Series, released today) joins so many dots for jazz listeners in some ways although of course it is a classical record.

The main point of intersection in this regard is between the piano/cello duo and the link to the elephant in the room, the music of Keith Jarrett, which without being too fanciful, is provided by the Gurdjieff selections here, the ‘Sayyid Chant and Dance No 3 /Hymn no 7’, which opens what is a beautiful album, and ‘Night Procession /Hymn No 8’, towards the end of a collection that also includes pieces by the very unJarrett-like Couturier, Komitas, and Frederico Mompou, the latter a composer jazz pianist Robert Mitchell has also interpreted recently.

The mystic Armenian modes and atmospheres of Gurdjieff Keith Jarrett popularised in the 1980s with the cult Sacred Hymns of GI Gurdjieff, and Lechner has recorded music by Gurdjieff before on another piano duo album (with Vassilis Tsabropoulos) called Chants Hymns and Dance a decade ago that this new release might be listened in conjunction with for even more insights, particularly Lechner’s innovative approach as a classical player who often finds herself working with improvisers.