How is it possible that all of this seems so natural, friendly, joyful and rousing ...? Probably only because two elective affinities have met here. Two musicians who grew up in completely different social environments, two fundamentally different characters, and yet two who intuitively understand each other. Helmut “Joe” Sachse, almost a quarter of a century older than Nils Wogram, grew up in the GDR and had to blaze his own trail to jazz against all the odds – from dance and rock music to free playing and on to his own distinctive language on the instrument. Nils Wogram has grown up in an established jazz scene and made his own mark both as an instrumentalist and with a whole series of bands that have worked together over the long term. Precision and freedom in furious cooperation. Something like this only succeeds because both have invested so much in their playing that they can manage the most refined things effortlessly. Both Nils Wogram and Helmut “Joe” Sachse say in unison that they feel comfortable in the flow of playing together. One notices this in the warmth of the sound, in the ease with which they find common ground, in the correspondences – be it in rapid unisoni, in the with and against each other of melodic lines, in the sovereign gait through the chords and in the course over intricate rhythms. In the end, everything seems very simple, unstrained, leaving intellectual considerations behind, joyful in the best sense of the word, affectionate towards each other and the listeners. The musical languages find common ground and the instruments a common sound. So there are numerous cross connections. Not in terms of style, but in terms of a musical compass, Joe Sachse follows his spiritual mentor John McLaughlin, who once said that a musical fusion can only be convincing if it is internalized. In this way Joe Sachse has succeeded in integrating jazz and rock, Coltrane and Hendrix, Spanish and American, acoustic and electric, harmony-oriented and free playing. Nils Wogram has repeatedly emphasized how strongly he comes from the jazz tradition, despite the ways in which jazz has expanded its form of expression. This can be felt, sometimes more strongly, sometimes more sublimely, in all his groups and impromptu formations. In the dialogue with Joe Sachse, the basic swinging gesture is immanent, as is the blues feeling in a very broad sense. This duo and its groove resemble a stroke of luck, which almost inevitably brings us back to the elective affinity of the two. With a bit of pathos: in a duo, a person shows himself as if under a magnifying glass. Among musicians, it’s true: play in a duo and I'll tell you who you are.”