“European Jazz with an American accent” – This new triosence project actually started on September 13th, 2008, when I emailed Sara Gazarek and told her how I loved her recordings – especially her voice, and how I thought she would be just the right singer for our next triosence CD. Sara was recommended to me by guitarist Frank Haunschild, a former teacher of mine at the Music College of Cologne, Germany where I was a student from 1999-2006.

After listening to her CDs “Yours” and “Return To You”, I immediately knew that she would fit perfectly to triosence.

All the music and lyrics were written over the last few years. However, I thought it would be wise to have some rewritten by a native speaker, so I emailed Sara about my intentions, and fortunately, she was enthusiastic about the project. Since Sara lives in Los Angeles and I in Cologne, the only way we could continuously stay in contact was via internet: we could talk, send each other sheet music, and home recordings; and she often sang her latest lyrics to me. We spent many hours composing and rewriting lyrics, sometimes discussing and revising them for weeks when it came to certain verses and choruses.

Sara’s ideas and influences on the lyrics turned out to be a good addition to the already existing material, even though they sometimes contrasted greatly to what I had in mind at first. Ultimately, I think we have found a great balance between our two personalities. In February 2009, I traveled to Los Angeles where we met for the first time and had the chance to actually make music together in person. The spirit was right there, and I truly enjoyed working with her.

A few months later, in August 2009 we took the next step: my longtime drummer Stephan Emig, Matthias Nowak (bass), Vitaliy Zolotov (guitar), and I flew over to the US to rehearse the songs with Sara and to perform a number of concerts in California. It was a very inspiring trip that truly placed this project on a different level. Finally, one month later, Sara came to Germany for the recording of this album – “where time stands still“.

The result is what I call “European jazz with an American accent”

The cover photo was taken during a private trip to the USA in summer 2009.

Bernhard Schüler, March 2010