DeJohnette's trio with Michael Cain and Steve Gorn was launched in 1996. The drummer positing an "atmospheric" band, strong on what he called "healing" rhythms to "bring back the tribal aspect of interaction between musician and listener". "Tribal" considerations had been much on DeJohnette's mind, partly the result of his studies of Native American lore, a consuming interest in recent years. Although the album's title and individual track titles testify to that influence the trio's music has been all but reinvented in the concentrated focus of the session; the result is a powerful recording, distinguished by often fiery group interplay. The spirits invoked are frequently of the elemental variety; forces of nature, unleashed. The disc's freest moments remind us, too, that DeJohnette's all-embracing "roots" also extend to a period of heady experimentation with the early AACM.