Originally formed in 2006 under the moniker Dodobird as a one man acoustic act, Meric Long would gig around San Francisco playing folky guitar with a combination of loops an ambient keyboards. After exploring percussion and drumming, Meric got turned onto country blues and sought to create a band where the drumming could be a centre role and help bring out the syncopated rhythms coming out of the acoustic guitar.
Composer/trumpeter Jon Hassell is the visionary creator of a style of music he named Fourth World, which he describes as "coffee-colored classical" - a mysterious, unique hybrid of musics that unfolds between the polarities of ancient and digital, composed and improvised, Eastern and Western.