"Jürg Wickihalder was born in 1973 in the little Alpine town of Glarus in central Switzerland. Unlikely as it may seem, in the '80s Glarus was home to a remarkable community of musicians and a lively jazz scene, where Wickihalder as a teenager already met such well-known musicians as Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), Benny Bailey, or Ray Anderson. While still in high school in the '90s, Wickihalder commenced his studies in jazz composition and saxophone with Urs Leimgruber at the Jazz School Lucerne. In 1992, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts (USA), where he studied with Joe Viola and George Garzone at the Berklee College of Music and developed a strong and widely heard voice, particularly on soprano saxophone. After his return to Europe, Wickihalder continued to deepen his musical language by studying with American soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 2000 and expanded his knowledge of the art of great jazz composers such as Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus.

Since 1996, Wickihalder has mainly worked as the leader of his own groups performing his compositions. The Jürg Wickihalder Overseas Quartet (CD "Furioso," Intakt 153), the Jürg Wickihalder European Quartet feat. Irène Schweizer (CD "Jump," Intakt 194), and the Jürg Wickihalder Orchestra (CD "Narziss & Echo," Intakt 209). He regularly plays in duos with pianist Chris Wiesendanger (CD "A Feeling for Someone," Intakt 134) and Irène Schweizer (CD "Spring," Intakt 234).

BEYOND, a trio with Barry Guy on bass and Lucas Niggli on drums (CD "Beyond," Intakt 277) is Wickihalder's most recent project, receiving considerable critical acclaim.

Wickihalder tours worldwide and is a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra (GB) and the Uli Gumpert Quartett (GER), among other groups. He is a winner of numerous awards, including composition and soloist awards from the Dienemann Foundation, made the dean's list at the Berklee College of Music, received the 18th Annual Student Award of the US music magazine Downbeat and has been performing and teaching as an official Selmer Paris Artist since 2006."

"French-Japanese violist Frantz Loriot performs solo as well as in various ensembles by way of improvisation and electronics, crossroads of different musical genres: improvised music, experimental, rock, contemporary music and electronics. He has contributed to multidisciplinary projects related to dance, image and poetry.

Frantz Loriot leads two large ensembles, the European Notebook Large Ensemble, a 10 piece ensemble with Swiss, Japanese, Belgian and Italian musicians with which he released "Urban Furrow" on the Portuguese label Clean Feed (July 2015) and the NYC based 12 piece Systematic Distortion Orchestra in which Frantz reunites some of the finest NYC based improvisers and with which he released "The Assembly" on the NYC based label NowOut recordings.

Beside these projects, Frantz released his debut solo recording "Reflections on an Introspective Path" on the NYC based label Neither/Nor.

For the year 2016, Frantz got invited by the prestigious Météo - Mulhouse Music festival to be artist in residence for a new creation called Der dritte Treffpunkt. For this occasion, Frantz led and reunited a new French-Swiss quartet, Der Verboten, with pianist Cédric Piromalli, saxophonist Antoine Chessex and percussionist Christian Wolfarth.

Active in a number of international collective ensembles, his other personal projects include:

baloni - with Joachim Badenhorst (reeds) & Pascal Niggenkemper (contrabass), Natura Morta - with Sean Ali (contrabass) & Carlo Costa, duos with Jeremiah Cymerman (clarinet), Christoph Erb (saxophones) & Christian Wolfarth (percussions), the project Treffpunkt around international meetings with French pianist Cédric Piromalli.

He appears as a sideman in Joachim Badenhorst's Carate Urio Orchestra, Tobias Meier's Im Wald and Silvan Jeger

This Difficult Tree.

In addition to his own projects he has also worked alongside many musicians such as (a.o.), Barre Phillips, Joëlle Léandre, David S.Ware, Anthony Braxton & Walter Thompson Orchestra, Tony Conrad, Emilie Lesbros, Duane Pitre's ED09 ensemble, Ève Risser, Sabir Mateen, Michael Formanek, Andrea Parkins, Franck Vigroux, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Alexei Borisov, Theresa Wong, Ernesto Rodrigues, Hilmar Jensson, Kita Naoki, Simon Nabatov, Steve Swell, Yagi Michiyo, Yasumune Morishige, Mikko Innanen, Christian Weber and many others.

Frantz Loriot performs regularly in Europe, USA and Japan.

Frantz Loriot appears on CDs released on international labels such as Clean Feed, Creative Sources, Intakt, Peira, FMR, Sickcore, Impressus, Prom Night Records, Basses Fréquences, Quiet Design, Edible Onion, Komma Null, Klein, Neither/Nor, OutNow, Wide Ear etc.

Frantz Loriot studied music in Paris with several professors (Mari Yasuda-Raclot, the Pons brothers, Nicolas Dupin, Ivry Gitlis, Yukari Tate & Pascal Robault) and was brought to improvisation by Régis Huby, Joëlle Léandre, Barre Phillips, and David S. Ware.

He was initiated to soundmassage by its creator, Thierry Madiot.

While living in NYC, he created and curated Ze Couch Series in Brooklyn, NY, from 2009 to 2012. After having lived in Paris and New York City, Frantz Loriot relocated in Zürich (Switzerland)."

"Daniel Studer was born in Zürich in 1961, lived and worked in Rome from 1981 to 1995, is now living with his family in Zurich.Master of arts in Music Pedagogy, guest composer at the Elektronisches Studio in Basel, studied composition with Johannes Schöllhorn.2010 award from the city of Zurich.

His focus lies on improvisation and mixed forms of improvisation and composition. He participated in various projects involving space - and projects with live electronics; further fields of interest are music and language, music and dance, music and video poetry. The constant exploration of his instrument has led to performances as a soloist, too.For years he has been working with Peter K Frey, Mischa Käser, Katharina Klement, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Dieter Ulrich and Alfred Zimmerlin.Presently he is part of the Kontrabassduo Studer-Frey, Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin, III-VII-XII (with Mischa Käser and Urs Haenggli) and the trio Gabriela Friedli Trio.

Concerts and radio recordings in Europe, Japan and USA. Among others he played with Lester Bowie, Jacques Demierre, Michel Doneda, Paolo Fresu, Gerry Hemingway, Steve Grossmann, Barney Kessel, Hans Koch, Riccardo Lay, Joëlle Léandre, Magda Mayas, Mike Melillo, Evan Parker, Antonello Salis, Irene Schweizer, Tony Scott, Co Streiff, Sebi Tramontana, Massimo Urbani, Urs Voerkel, Bobby Watson and many others.

Records with the Kontrabassduo Studer-Frey, Kimmig-Studer-Zimmerlin, Giancarlo Schiaffini Quintet, Gabriela Friedli Trio, Solo, In Transit, Eichenbergers Domino, Day & Taxi, Käppeli-Lüscher-Studer, Streichtrio Coen-Penazzi-Studer on labels as Intakt,Unit Records, EMANEM, Konnex, Percaso, Creative Sources, Edition RZ.

Festivals: Controindicazioni Roma, Le Mans Jazz Festival, Südtirol Jazz Festival Bozen, Clusone Jazz, Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon, Unerhört! Zürcher Jazzfestival, Willisau Jazz Festival, Zoom in Bern, Schaffhauser Jazzfestival, Limmitantiones, Romaeuropa, Zürcher Theaterspektakel, World New Music Days, Honmoku Jazz Festival Yokohama, Jazz and more München, Siena Jazz, Progetto Musica Roma

He has been teaching improvisation at different music schools so at the Bern University of the Arts since 2006."