Sometimes you meet complete strangers, but what you experience with them is an almost inexplicable feeling of familiarity and connection. I still remember the first duo concert with Lucas Niggli in 2013. We went on stage without having had any rehearsal beforehand, or even a discussion about what we would play, and yet it felt as if we had known each other for ages. Everything happened in a natural and unforced way. And there was a very similar feeling when we played for the first time as a quartet with Luciano and Kalle at the end of 2015: In our voice/drums duo we covered a wide range of different energy levels, going all the way from the quietest acoustic dialogues to feeling the powerful pull of the archaic, the unconstrained, and occasionally the downright aggressive. Keeping these opposite polarities in mind, the desire grew to work with them and extend them.

We decided to expand the duo for a tour, and to have two different trios. With Luciano we would concentrate on the lyrical, the poetic and what felt good; with Kalle we would enjoy power, amplified sounds and electronics. Rehearsals were planned so that we could work with Luciano in the morning and with Kalle in the afternoon, but a flight delay brought all four of us to the rehearsal room at the same time. Our sound-check simply morphed into a wild two-hour session of collective improvisation. And when we all woke up from the frenzy, we knew that we had witnessed the birth of a new and powerful collective.

Right from the start we saw ourselves as equal co-conspirators in the quartet. Each member brought compositions from his own personal musical hinterland. In pieces such as “Aritmia” or “Stagione”, Luciano's 'Italianità' is wonderfully palpable. In “Planet Zumo” what jumps into the foreground is Kalle's work with Nigerian drummer Tony Allen. In “Getalateria” I was keen to bring an Alpine mountain echo to meet Kalle's wild Finnish guitar. We honour Lucas Niggli's childhood in Cameroun in the track “Flood”, inspired by the African writer Chenjerai Hove. For me it was important to accommodate the mother tongue of each of the musicians in this album. So “Fiore Salino” is in Italian, and “Laulu Jatkuu” is in Finnish. In “Swie Embri” I sing in my first language, the dialect of the German part of Valais.

I am delighted to be able to share this very personal music with you. Please dive in – and enjoy total immersion in the sonic cosmos of “A Novel Of Anomaly.''

Andreas Schaerer, Autumn 2017