The French drummer Olivier le Goas is one of the busiest musicians in his country. He has had his own bands for 35 years, and at the same time he has played with pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic, the big band of pianist Laurent Cogny, bassist Jean-François Jenny-Clark, pianists Benoit Delbecq and Jean-Michel Pilc, trumpeters Kenny Wheeler, Avishai Cohen and Charles Tolliver, and guitarist Ben Monder. His own bands have been filled with such illustrious musicians as John Abercrombie, Ralph Alessi, Drew Gress, Manu Codjia, Nir Felder, Kevin Hays, John Escreet and Larry Grenadier. He is now presenting a new trio on "Sunland", which includes bassist Lukas Traxel and pianist Kristjan Randalu.
"The album should have been recorded years ago, but the coronavirus pandemic threw a wrench in our plans," le Goas sighed. In May 2023, the three musicians finally went to the legendary Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg to record twelve songs that the drummer composed especially for this line-up. Tricky meters ("Good to be Back", "Life on Mars/Book of Dreams", "Mirage") play just as important a role as songs inspired by folk songs ("E. Song", "Key Song") and multithematic songs ("A Song in a Song", "Morning Light", "Cross the Undangered Species").
