A mere mention of the names of Michael League and Bill Laurance makes one think of Snarky Puppy. It is now nearly twenty years since Southern California-born bassist/multi-instrumentalist Michael League founded the globally acclaimed, four-time GRAMMY award-winning collective. As for keyboardist Bill Laurance, originally from London, he has been a part of the globe-trotting adventure for nearly as long as League has. So the fact that League and Laurance are now releasing Where you Wish you Were, their first duo album together, does feel at the same time like a logical development...and also a surprise. Michael League takes a very different role here from the one he does in Snarky Puppy. On Where you Wish you Were, he is to be heard mainly playing the oud and other acoustic stringed instruments. Where you Wish you Were has nothing of a world jazz fusion album about it, and was never intended be one. Bill and I are very clear about not pretending that this project has anything to do with replicating any regional styles with deep roots, emphasises League. We're committed to creating something that is uniquely ours, even if it retains certain elements of established genres of music. And so it is, as is so often the case in the musical world which is now called jazz: the universe of personal, musical and sonic influences of the two musicians do not serve to set limits or to categorise, but rather as a vocabulary which allows the two musicians' own distinctive mode of expression to shine through. With compositions focused entirely on melody, harmony and space, a warm sound and the soulful playing of the two players, League and Laurance have created a place which is not just conducive to dreams; it is a place to which the listener will want to return to again and again.
