Call it a supergroup or, better yet, a jamband supergroup. These five friends—The String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann (percussion) and Keith Moseley (bass), New Monsoon’s Jeff Miller (guitar, vocals) and Phil Ferlino (keyboards, vocals) and Railroad Earth’s Tim Carbone (violin, guitar, vocals)—have just released the record Which Way World under the moniker The Contribution. While the album is new, the seeds have actually been planted for several years.

While the musicians’ respective musical paths have crossed in the past, they didn’t really come to a head until String Cheese’s festival at Horning’s Hideout in 2005. The vibe was conducive to musical mind-melding and it was a trippy, between-stages jam that had Carbone, Miller and Ferlino flashing on the same thought: we need to take this thing further.

So, whenever the stars (and touring schedules) lined up during the next three years, the trio retreated to West Marin, Calif. for writing sessions. By late 2008, there was enough material ready to think about adding a rhythm section for recording.

Read more on The Contribution at Relix.com