I began work on this album in Autumn 2016. It started with experimentation of sounds from a modular synthetsizer, the I added the guitars and Paolo Ranieri added the trumpets. Some of his riffs I also processed through the synthesizer and each day a song was formed. I used a minimum guitars. Work on this album was influenced by the diagnosis of my good friend Lukas Halicky, just 34 years old, father of 3 kids with a brain tumour. Things spiralled downward, as I trusted in a positive result of treatment for my friend and I wanted to help. All this influenced the atmosphere of the songs. This album is a story, like Dostoevsky's notes from the underground. That book fell off its shelf when I thought about the title of this album and its conception. In these circumstances, the painting from Dušan Očkovič summarised my thoughts (see the album cover). A smoking man deep in thought wearing a striped jumper. I see there Jesus who doesn't want to look me in the eye. But, as long as the cigarette burns, there is always hope. credits