Ricky is the most gifted and popular singer in his native Madagascar where he is known as ‘Olombelo Ricky‘ (‘Ricky, the human being’). The local press has reported him as the phenomenon of ‘Rickymania’. Ricky is an expert in traditional Malagasy music, but mainly works with an electric band made up of some of thebest musicians on the island, playing a mixture of vako-drazana folk and jazz they call vakojazzana. In 1995, Ricky met the Swiss band Patent Ochsner and their manager Christian Siegenthaler who gave Ricky the opportunity to record an album. The six Malagasy musicians flew to Switzerland, where they recorded sixty minutes of music. When Robert Trunz heard the tape, he noted the similarity of some of the sounds to Brazilian music and asked Airto Moreira to join Ricky. Ricky came to Brownhill Farm Studios during the summer of 1997 and worked on the tapes of his debut album with Airto Moreira. Together they completely re-build the tracks with contributions by Suzan Hendricks, Mabi Thobejane and Diana Moreira who were also staying at Brownhill.