Swiss vocal acrobat Andreas Schaerer and Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima have some things in common. As artists, each is essentially in a category completely of his own. Both are musicians who can always conjure something special from their chosen instruments.

"The Big Wig" by multitalented Swiss vocal marvel Andreas Schaerer is a landmark work that situates him quite clearly and definitively among his generation's most important composers and interpreters of contemporary music. This performance was recorded live at the Lucerne Festival in September 2015 and features the small ensemble Hildegard Lernt Fliegen and the Orchestra of the Lucerne Festival Academy conducted by Mariano Chiachiarini.

For once, here’s a band for which the word "supergroup" is completely appropriate. Swiss vocalist Andreas Schaerer, German pianist Michael Wollny, French accordionist Vincent Peirani and his saxophonist compatriot Emile Parisien are four of the brightest and most charismatic stars in European jazz, now combining their talents in a quartet. This live 2016 recording demonstrates why they are at the very pinnacle of jazz musicians of their generation.

Andreas Schaerer’s recent projects have established him at the forefront of the creative jazz scene in Europe. The Berne-based artist’s debut on the label, the revolutionary orchestral work "The Big Wig", a commission from the Lucerne Festival, was followed by a quartet formation with Michael Wollny, Vincent Peirani and Emile Parisien, “Out of Land”, and most recently by an album with another quartet, “A Novel of Anomaly”. This succession of highly contrasting releases have shown that Schaerer is not a jazz singer in any conventional sense: he is a vocal artist capable of imitating almost every instrument or sound with his voice. He covers all kinds of vocal styles from crooning to operatic tenor, and he is able to juxtapose them all in a completely individual way. Now, having lain dormant while Schaerer pursued these other endeavours, the band that first put him on the map, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen (Hildegard learns to fly) is back in business.