Saxophonist John Tchicai returned home to Denmark in 1966 after four years in New York, where he had made himself one of the most prominent members of the avant-garde movement that had become known as the "New Thing. He then formed the Cadentia Nova Danica ensemble with young Danish musicians who were already playing together: Tchicai assumed the role of mentor for the experimental group, who learned how to navigate the unorthodox technical demands and wild emotions of the controversial new sound. Tchicai also allowed band members Karsten Vogel and composer Finn von Eyben to add their own compositions to the repertoire, thereby helping them establish the foundation of their musical careers which soon flourished. "What Tchicai gave his young colleagues was the courage to explore the boundaries between composition and improvisation, creating structures that could be though of as fluid, living organisms. His three compositions heard here offer their own approaches, from the rhythm section inferno under the slow-moving horn lines of The Education of an Amphibian to the intense unaccompanied alto solo which opens Kirsten," writes jazz critic Richard Williams in the liner notes.
