Through the wood, sinew, skins, metal, and fingers, one hears the years of experiential exploration, responsive nuances, and overwhelming power in the trio's joyfully intense playing. They cover a lot of territory in this recording, conjuring epochs and eras, terrains and cultures. This is improvised music composed spontaneously out of the breadth of experiences. André Stjames is a cornerstone of the rich, thriving Pacific Northwest jazz scene and works regularly with his own ensemble, Mel Brown, The Kin Trio, Gordon Lee, Renato Caranto, and many others. Over the last three decades, Stjames has worked with Sonny Rollins, the Harold Land-Blue Mitchell Quintet, Andrew Hill Trio and large bands, Bobby Hutcherson, Charlie Rouse, Pharoah Sanders, and more. Stjames's strong sense of lyricism, buoyancy, and surging momentum, as well as a deep respect for both tradition and innovation, have taken him to both ends of the jazz spectrum -- from torch songs and two-beat to bop and beyond. Tim DuRoche works regularly with the collective ensemble Battle Hymns & Gardens and The Kin Trio, and has logged extensive time with an array of US and European avant-garde jazz innovators, including Dominic Duval, Burton Greene, Matana Roberts, Paul Plimley, Lisle Ellis, Wally Shoup, Gust Burns, Bert Wilson, and Urs Leimgruber, among others. Tim is the host of "The New Thing", a weekly radio jazz radio show on KMHD 89.1 FM, and is the author of the book Occasional Jazz Conjectures (2011). Thollem's spent his life skirting and erasing the edges of boundaries musically, culturally, geographically. His work is ever-changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines including William Parker, Susie Ibarra, Nels Cline, Amy Denio, Faruq Z. Bey, Michael Wimberly, John Butcher, Gino Robair, Pauline Oliveros, and Hafez Modirzadeh, among many, many others. "He inhabits a world uniquely his own, rhythmically, harmonically and formally." --Terry Riley This is Thollem's third appearance on ESP-Disk', following The Naked Future's Gigantomachia (ESPDISK 4053CD, 2009) and TSIGOTI's Private Poverty Speaks To The People Of The Party (ESPDISK 4057CD, 2009). Personnel: Thollem McDonas - piano; Tim DuRoche - drums André Stjames - bass.