The idea for "Ivan's Dream" was born during sound engineer Ilya Izotov's travels to Uganda, where he collects folk music, a participant in the project told Russian media. During one of his expeditions, a spontaneous thought struck him: what if a local musician played a Russian folk melody on the adunge, a harp-like instrument? Back in Moscow, Tatyana Shishkova recorded the vocals on a dictaphone and sent them to Ilya. The moment he heard the mix of sounds, they knew they had something special—a concept ripe for a full album.
The album itself is a sonic tapestry, with nine tracks weaving together the adunge, guitar, bass, Ugandan folk drums, and the Rwandan enanga. Shishkova told Russian media that unlike their Russian counterparts, African musicians often learn their music through dance and improvisation, with less emphasis on formal notation and theory.