Swiss composer Dimitri Howald has, with his band Ilja, created a six-headed mythical beast, a fantastic, romantic creature whose limbs reach out in all imaginable harmonic directions. Yes, this thing sprints at 180 miles per hour, barefoot, straight as an arrow, light and free. Its voice a mixture of horn and guitar, its claws drum, tap, brush, until the song fades out, and night closes in over the tundra. Howald sends his six-headed, twelve-handed being, sometimes veering off course, sometimes singing as one, out into the wilderness - a godforsaken place whose bland emptiness is waiting to be filled with delicate poetry, playful rhythms and the harmonies of modern jazz. Dimitri Howald (g, comp) Michael Gilsenan (ts) Tom Millar (p) Jérémie Krüttli (b) Tobias Schmid (dr) vocals on the album: Leoni Altherr (voc)