 This line-up was considered unconventional, with one writer noting that the inclusion of the serpent, a military horn, was particularly unusual for a jazz album.The album was recorded in October 2005 at Volkshaus, Basel, Switzerland, with ECM owner Manfred Eicher producing the recording and with engineering by Daniel Dettweiler.The space in Eicher's production were said by Thom Jurek of AllMusic to provide "an unhurried sense of time's stasis," thus making the album "all the more appealing" in that it slowly brings listeners through the recording.