"Stefan Schultze and I met by chance in January 2013 at Ausland in Berlin. Much of Stefan's work has been composing and arranging in the jazz idiom and beyond, and most of mine has been in free improvisation. So, in a way, the project is a meeting of two practices - formal compositional knowledge and free improvisation experience.

Stefan had developed a series of piano preparations he was using in solo performance - we have a shared interest in performing solo. These 'modules' (bits and pieces in plastic bags) are applied to the inside of the piano, effectively creating a new instrument, or sound world with each preparation. Our music has developed by exploring, together, using the piano preparations and the baritone and alto saxophones.

Improvisation, or free improvisation, is at the heart of the approach as it not only enables us to work together creatively but is the preferred way of doing things. With our different points of reference there is a wide variety of possibilities, there's also very little censorship of ideas, and a broad use of dynamics. Much of the time the piano and saxophones are employed in ways that result in non-standard soundscapes - derived from 'other' approaches to playing. The 'areas' we explore are left open - as new musical ideas arise different combinations emerge. The shared process is reflective, playing and discussing, and this has extended to the selection of music for this CD: 'The Ten Thousand Things'.

The recording was made at the Loft, Cologne, in concert and in session the following day on the 19th and 20th October 2013."-Simon Rose, April 2015