Swiss vocal phenomenon Andreas Schaerer has been described as "the Germanic Bobby McFerrin with the flow of a Shakespearean actor" (L'Alsace). His "incomparable stage presence" makes him a unique figure on the European music scene, a distinction that was awarded European Artist of the Year by the French Académie du Jazz in early 2024. Schaerer, as a musical creator who wants to create original art - perhaps even a completely original art form - is very aware of how the charisma and presence of a vocal soloist works. As he says: "A voice always emerges directly from the music that surrounds it. In "Anthem For No Mans Land", he goes one step further and shows that he is driven by motivations other than simply shining as a soloist. He is committed to the collective ethos of his regular quartet and says: "I have consciously studied how to use my voice to accompany music or an instrument. It's less difficult to find accompaniment patterns than to ensure that the voice doesn't constantly push itself to the fore. If you don't want to take on this traditional role as a singer, you have to shape your music very consciously." But what will always shine through, especially in live performances, is the passion with which Schaerer pursues his art. On stage, his whole body becomes an instrument, elastic and dancing. He lives the music, glides into it, slips into roles that arise from the sounds he makes. An unusual concept that he is able to develop further in collaboration with drummer Lucas Niggli, guitarist Kalle Kalima and accordionist Luciano Biondini. The quartet unites strong and disparate musical characters who now know each other well: "The band has been around since 2016," says Schaerer. the original nucleus was the duo with Lucas Niggli, which already existed at the time. We couldn't decide whether we wanted to go in a more electronic or acoustic direction in the long term. The plan was to have two trios. We explored one direction with Kalle and the other with Luciano. The chemistry was right, and that's how a quartet came about. And we all play together in different ways, as duos in different combinations. More than six years have now passed since the release of the quartet's first album, "A Novel Of Anomaly" in 2018, and the band has evolved considerably in more than 100 concerts. The gap between albums is explained by the fact that Schaerer is involved in several other projects: Hildegard lernt fliegen, Out Of Land, The Big Wig, Rom / Schaerer / Eberle or Evolution...All these other works feed into the group's way of working. The quartet's music, as heard on "Anthem For No Man's Land", has noticeably expanded, becoming more open and free. Andreas Schaerer's conscious withdrawal from the band's "front line" into the collective is also accompanied by a new experimental freedom in the use of language. The introductory sentence of the liner note makes this clear: "This is our musical offer for a utopian, inclusive society, using a new, free, imaginary language that is not limited by origin or cultural boundaries." Schaerer has achieved something remarkable here: without renouncing the spoken word, he has also managed to turn his back on it. The words he sings may sound familiar, but the language here is invented. Schaerer's style is to use language to evoke associations and create moods. And he does this so masterfully and subtly that a casual listener might have the impression that they are hearing English, Spanish, Greek or Italian, and that the words have a meaning. In reality, they don't. And while all of this may sound like it's done just for fun and laughs, it's not. There is a serious purpose. Schaerer says: "The interface between language, music and sound is particularly exciting. I've always been interested in playing with that nexus, where the content dissolves and the language is just sound, but still has enough linguistic DNA to be understood as such. It's fluid, even funny, a childlike place. Children also speak a lot of fantasy languages. And with this album I was thinking a lot along those lines. Some pieces work well without one, but others require a language. I then experimented with imaginary English or Italian, where I only used the "temperatures" of the sounds. Because I quickly realized that "Anthem For No Man's Land" should use a freer language that doesn't belong to any nation. They are all non-existent words. The music is entirely focused on this utopian ideal. As it says in the accompanying text: "We don't just strive to affirm freedom, we want to live it in our music." At times, "Anthem For No Man's Land" sounds like prog rock or the psychedelic sound of the seventies. At other times you can enjoy echoes of Italian folk songs or lean into a tango. There are influences from West African rhythms and Alpine melodies. Chamber jazz leads to a sophisticated form of Dada, the variety of sounds and motifs matches the images evoked by the imaginary languages. "Anthem For No Mans Land" never stops at the obvious. Schaerer and his quartet have declared their intention to express an ideal, a philosophy "through the emotions and the immediacy of our music".