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"... one of the prettiest piano trio albums of the new millennium. It opens with pure aural seduction ... in jazz, 'pretty' is often an adjective that damns with faint praise. Battaglia’s music is pretty but neither shallow nor soft." - JazzTimes.com "... Battaglia's writing for the trio has become increasingly specific, allowing each member greater freedom to more fully realize their roles in what is an equilateral triangle of finesse, melodism and subtle power ... capitalizes on the strength of a trio that's been honing its craft in multiple contexts for eight years, finding beauty in every nook and cranny even as it eschews the obvious and continues to hone its profoundly lyrical language with music that paints vivid pictures and evokes cinematic landscapes, encouraging the imagination to run where it will." - All About Jazz Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia and his trio continue to develop directions established on their acclaimed 2011 release The River of Anyder with this selection of chants, hymns and dances, all written by Battaglia and inspired by descriptions of visionary places from art and literature: from Alfred Kubin, Jonathan Swift or Charles Fourier to Italo Calvino. The dynamics captured here are those of an improvising trio listening intently and responding to each other in the natural acoustic of an exceptional recital room, Lugano’s Auditorio Radiotelevisione Svizzera. "Songways finds a new harmonic balance between archaic modal pre-tonal chant and dances, pure tonal songs and hymns and abstract texture, thus documenting the natural development of the trio life, with a larger space for action from the drums." - Stefano Battaglia