Ensemble Extrakte – this name outlines a musical program. The thirteen treatises on this album are seismographic soundscapes of uncommon encounters. In 2013 Elke Moltrecht and Sandeep Bhagwati brought together the eleven musical polyglots of the ensemble in music. They came from widely different musical backgrounds and to each of them music meant something else. Every track on this album started with an idea – a poem, an image, an artistic form, a metaphor etc. – and grew in workshops and rehearsals. This album is the culmination of what the musicians found to be precious, the music that they loved the most. It is a milestone, yes, but one that, in a very real sense, marks only their very beginning. Ensemble Extrakte is part of a large-scale international research-creation project led by Sandeep Bhagwati at matralab (Concordia University Montreal).