A year before I moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music, I briefly played keys in a fantastic funk-soul-jazz band in Basel, Switzerland: Cracks In The Shell. Even though our collaboration was too short, bandleader Peter Koerfgen had the dream to complete an album and fortunately, I was able to be part of it! The line-up was great, with incredible musicians from Switzerland, many of my heros who are professors at the Jazzcampus School in Basel.

The songs are all originals, mostly written by Peter himself. Great lyrics and sophisticated, fun compositions - we even got some radio play on BBC in the UK!

I was able to contribute one song as well, when Peter introduced me to the poems of the great American poet Andrew Shields who teaches English and literature at the University of Basel. I chose his poem “Drown” to write music to and in the end, I also sang the lead vocals for this song!