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This was recorded outdoors at the Lowbudget Records 30th anniversary party in 2009.

What a party! I was blind for three days! (Groucho Marx, "A Night At The Opera", to give credit where credit is due.)

All of the acts, including Chillgroove, were recorded in multitrack. We gave away quick mixes of everything on the web shortly afterward and forgot about it.

Recently Kerry suggested I re-examine the multitracks with an ear towards releasing an album. When I opened up the project, I was intrigued.

Chillgroove is a trio, a very offbeat trio, that records while improvising. The recordings, after editing, are stunning. Two studio albums are available, "Chillgroove", a single CD, and "Juju", a 2 CD set. Both are highly recommended, if I do say so myself. They've both been on my iPod since we finished them and they both got great reviews. I know lots of people who still return to them every now and then for a bit of mental cleansing.

After we recorded "Juju", and after I had released my own album "Crash Dot Burn", I tried to get a live Chillgroove act going. It involved backing tracks and projected videos, trying to present the studio recordings as faithfully as possible.

Noam Sender, who had contributed incredible improv vocals to the "Juju" album, did the same for the live act. He also added ney and zurna along with tons of percussion.

I asked my old pal Glenn to fill in the bass parts. Glenn also played synth on a couple of songs, played guitar parts, and sang backup along with Noam.

Over a year, the experience was both exhilarating and stressful. It took a lot of practice and a lengthy, complicated setup for each show. Due to the structure, there was no room for improv, which is Chillgroove's strength. We'd either play to a crowd that was in awe, or we'd play to a crowd that was scratching their heads. Sometimes there'd be no crowd at all. Eventually Noam and Hayim had had it. Truth be told, they were merely the first to run to the exit door. Exhausted, we stopped doing the live show.

This is the only multitrack recording of this Chillgroove quintet playing live in front of an audience, and it was one of our best nights and best audiences. It also contains a unique version of Brian Eno's "Under", which we had never gotten around to recording.

The trio is still getting together and recording sporadically due to familial responsibilities, but things have been picking up lately. We should have a third amazing CD out in the next year or so.

Oops - a fourth amazing CD. This one is the third one.

- Tim Casey

I haven't had a chance to collect my thoughts, but they're pretty simple. Playing with Chillgroove in any form always yields musical results. I think the thing I find most amusing about this recording in it's raw form is I've played it for musician friends of mine over the past few years and they seem a bit blown away when I explain that it's a backyard barbecue recording.

- Kerry Maxwell