I met Eric three and a half years ago through my good friend Pierre Pavis, owner of the great Cafe Forte in Grenoble. I needed a pianist and asked him to play with me for a festival that was soon thereafter canceled. So... Eric took charge and booked us a gig in the Romans Dept. de la Drome. Our first concert was Tuesday the 13th of February, 1996 in a church next to the railroad station. We had to move a huge cross that was hanging out over the piano. A train would pass every five or ten minutes. That was the start of our international career. We prepared for this recording in Spain, where we would spend days playing music at a friends apartment in Gandia in the Valencian province, high up on the 14th floor, looking out over the sea. I haven't encountered many classical musicians like Eric who share the same concept of makingmusic. - Gille Apap , 1999 Gilles and I are the same age. Although French, our parents maintain a nostalgic sense for North Africa, where they were born. There our commonalities end. Because... we are both soloists, and therefore profoundly independent in character. People might say of us that he's the whimsical one, and I'm the serious one. But I would not play with him if he were not serious, and he would not choose to play with me if I were lacking in imagination. I have never experienced such energy and pleasure in the quest for musical truth as I have with Gilles. Whatever will be our success, one thing reassures me: he doesn't play the piano... or not yet! - Eric Ferrand-N'Kaoua, 1999