This album is a huge step for me in many ways. Countless hours of searching, discovering, doubts, frustrations and joy lie behind the creation of my debut album. This would not have been possible without some very special people. First of all, I want to thank my two amazing parents, who have always encouraged me in the best way possible, both musically and personally. I would also like to thank the rest of my lovely family for their great support. Then an infinite 'thank you' to my incredible, kind, beautiful and ingenious love Alma,who is giving me enormous strength. I also want to thank my most important musical mentors: Bastian Stein, Markus Klein, Andy Haderer and above all Libor Šima, without whom I probably would have never discovered my love for jazz. I would also like to thank my two best friends Bernhard and Jakob for being able to talk to them about anything at any time. And of course a special thanks to everyone who contributed to this album, my quartet, consisting of incredible musicians and friends, the other amazing guest musicians, Klaus Genuit for the excellent and experienced work, Joachim Becker for believing in me, making everything possible and supporting all my musical ideas, the „InitiativeMusik for the great support and everyone else involved, who helped me with this album! You rocked! What you're hearing on this album is my first major musical manifesto and a bundled collection of almost everything I've learned over the last 20 years. An intimate examination of me as a musician and as a person. Above all, I would like to thank you, who listen to it and I am wishing you a lot of joy doing this! -Jakob Bänsch
