“After hearing the funny sounds made by this unusual bird which is called “fulica atra” in Latin, “nokikana” in Finnish and “coot” in English at a Finnish lake on a summer night some time ago, a purely fictional story started to grow… For any artist, a moment of inspiration is a beginning of a journey and a catalyst for freedom of expression – This odyssey contains the interesting shapes of melodies, textures, expression and sceneries that we created on those days of February 2007 – a story that wanted to be told – musical journey that happened in our minds.”

– “Like our previous album “Direct”, this recording has a lot of collectively improvised material too – there was no need to think too much or worry about the music and the story. They just started to grow. If one holds back too much when improvising, refusing to “let go”, the result is usually not as good as it could be.”

– “Working and performing with Uffe and Markku in the past years has been a real trip into musical fulfilment – an experience that has led us to a level of instinctive communication and effortless expression – establishing a wordless connection – to let the music fly like a bird.”

-Esa Pietilä