Ry Cooder and Win Wenders have known each other for 20 years. Cooder wrote the haunting music for Wenders projects Paris, Texas (1984) and The End of Violence (1997). In 1996 he brought a band to Havana's Egram Studios to cut an album that went on to win a Grammy. Two years later, the band were back in the studio to record another album—this time accompanied by Wenders and cinematographer Joerg Widmer.