Czech trumpeter Jiří Kotača and Swedish pianist Alf Carlsson release a new album with their band, featuring nine of their own original compositions. Besides being firmly rooted in the tradition of modern jazz, the album draws on various other styles by which the individual players swear, including jazz rock, modern mainstream, pop, and Scandinavian lyricism. Alf Carlsson and Jiří Kotača, both respected musical personalities, first met in Rotterdam and then during Alf’s visit to the Czech Republic, which eventually turned into a short common tour and later into a proper band as the two leaders were joined by two of the most sought-after jazz Slovak musicians of the youngest generation – double bassist and bass guitarist Peter Korman and drummer Kristián Kuruc. The band has been performing in this line up ever since. The idea to bring out a new album was born during the COVID-19 pandemic: “During the second year of the pandemic when we hadn’t been playing for more than a year, Alf and I met in Stockholm to start working on new music. We decided to make more use of live electronics and we also wanted to achieve a greater genre variety, to break out of the box. So that was the initial impulse and as a result, the listeners will be treated to nine very diverse compositions. Some of these gravitate towards jazz rock and fusion, some have closer to pop, others are lyrical, and yet other could be said to belong to the modern mainstream. But the main characteristic of our music remains the same: we mix styles and influences that we love,” says Jiří Kotača.