Patricia Barber's origins are commonly associated with 1994’s Café Blue and the follow-up, 1998’s Modern Cool. Both quickly established the singer/pianist as an immediate audiophile favorite whose rare combination of astute instrumental performance, daring originality, poet enterprise, intrepid vocals, and sculpted production announced her as an artist that both takes immense care in her music as well as in her sound. While largely unknown to many, 1992's diverse A Distortion of Love signaled the beginning of Barber's unfettered creativity.

On the cover of this album you can see a picture of New York taken in Hoboken, New Jersey where we recorded these tracks. To me it represents the beauty of a familiar place seen from a different perspective. I come from a small town in Austria called Judenburg. If my family when I moved to the next bigger city, Graz, it felt like the navel of the world. Graz is considered provincial for the Viennese.

An international summit meeting, “Travel Guide” features US guitarist Ralph Towner, Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, and Kazakhstan-born and Australia-raised guitarist Slava Grigoryan. Towner has been a key ECM recording artist for more than 40 years, while Muthspiel and Grigoryan make label debuts here. Grigoryan is well known as the preeminent Australian classical guitarist of his generation, and Muthspiel’s been an important figure on the transatlantic jazz scene for two decades, with his own bands and as a contributor to groups of Gary Burton, Paul Motian and many others. What all three guitarists share is a strong feeling for structure, a sense for lyrical improvisation and a feeling for space, harnessing instrumental technique to very graceful musical ends. Repertoire features five compositions by Towner, and five by Muthspiel.

Austrian guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel makes his ECM leader debut with "Driftwood", a trio album of subtlety and depth featuring renowned US jazz players Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade.

Fifth album by Leipzig based drummer, composer and band leader Eva Klesse, with featured guest musician Wolfgang Muthspiel, Klesse has assembled a strong quartet of talented German musicians, who all contribute to her striking compositions.