Czech bassist Miroslav Vitos was a founding member of the Weather Report, an American jazz fusion band of the 1970s and early 1980s. On the piano is Emil Wikrickski from Czech Republic and played mainly in Moravian Folk Song.

Emil Viklicky's second release from Venus is an unique concept album. It's a tribute to the internationally renowned Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, whose recent work featured Janacek's Sinfonietta as an important device. Viklicky met Murakami in 2010 and was surprised how well the writer was versed with the music of Janacek. A while later, he decided to dedicate his second album for Venus to Murakami, who is also known as a jazz afficionado. The program consists of Viklicky's originals inspired by the literary works of Murakami, a Beatles tune ("Eleanor Rigby") and several well known jazz tunes.

Miroslav Bukovsky and Emile Viklicky Czech into the Wangaratta Jazz Festival with John Mackey; Dave Liebman revisits Miles Davis and the influence of the African diaspora via Haiti and New Orleans inspires saxophonist Godwin Lewis.

Leos Janácek (1854-1928) is considered to rank with Antonin Dvorak and Bedrich Smetana as one of the most important Czech composers. Janácek was inspired by Moravian and Slavic folk music, which he incorporated in a modern, highly original synthesis. His work attained its mature form first in the 1904 opera Jenufa (often called the 'Moravian national opera'), and later with the symphonic poem Sinfonietta, and other chamber works and operas. A century later, Chech pianist Emil Viklicky, like Janácek, has taken the music of his native Moravia and melded it into a larger mainstream, in this case American-style jazz. In fact, Emil has written jazz arrangements of several Janácek compositions, three of which are heard in this collection: the two previously mentioned and a third, 'In the Mists.' The other tracks are a combination of traditional Moravian folksong (re-worked into a jazz context) and Emil's own compositions.