"Chris Meloche (b. Windsor, Ont., 1957) is an independent composer and performer of electronic, electroacoustic and computer music as well as a video and multi-media artist. He began creating electroacoustic works in 1980. He has persued independent studies and followed the work of such composers as Stockhausen, Reich, Cage, Berio, Riley, Feldman, Subotnick, and Hamel.

In 1982, Meloche collaborated in the formation of the group M104 with Werner Albert. M104 released 3 independent packages and played numerous live concerts, often as accompaniment to classic silent films (Nosferatu, Metropolis, Potemkin...). Since the demise of M104, he has continued to compose and perform solo material and contributed works for release in Canada and the U.K.

Meloche has also worked on commissioned compositions featuring acoustic instruments (cello, double bass, trombone) in conjunction with synthesizers, electronic sound processing and interactive electronics.

He has also been a proponent of "Radio Art" having diffused works such as "LINK": A Radio Music Performance Without Borders, "Loop2" - a 7 hour radiophonic installation work - and Philip Perkins' "Toronto Remote" performance.

Meloche has produced 2 releases by Canadian poets bill bissett and Karen MacCormack for Nightwood Editions as well as continuing to play live electroacoustic music concerts. International attention was gained with the presentation of "LINK" (produced with the assistance of a grant from the Media Arts Section of Canada Council) which was premiered at the Aeolian Hall (London) and broadcast on CHRW-FM (London). This event attracted international attention and led to interviews and features on Radio France International (Paris), Voice of America (Washington, DC), Radio Budapest (Hungary) and CFPL-TV (London). In January of 1990 his composition "Moscow Calling" received its international broadcast premiere on Radio Moscow, USSR.

Meloche has also recently completed the projects "Ionospheric Soundwalk" (a composition featuring naturally occurring radio waves), "Private World: A Wireless Public Access Audio Installation" and the 6-hour radiophonic work "Recurring Dreams of the Urban Myth." His environmental recordings of Scottish Stone Circle sites was installed at the Royal Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh) for 2 months in 1998 in conjunction with a photographic exhibition by Scottish artist Mark Johnston.

His work has also gained more international attention in 1994 with the signing of a CD recording contract with the FAX label of Frankfurt, Germany. These CDs have international distribution via N.E.W.S. of Belgium (distributed in Canada via Cargo Records, Montreal). He has released 2 CDs on FAX - "Recurring Dreams of the Urban Myth" (1994) and "Wireless" (1995). His latest releases are "Distant Rituals" (1996) on Silent Records (San Francisco), "Urban Myth 2" (1996) on Etherworld Recordings (San Francisco) and "Document '90" on Staalplaat/Korm Plastics (Amsterdam, Holland).

His work "Millennium Urban Soundscape Project" was broadcast via CHRW-FM and simultaneously over the Internet. It has also been presented as an installation at "drift" in Glasgow, Scotland (Nov. 1999) and was re-broadcast on several non-commercial radio stations throughout 2000. He has also collaborated with sound-poet bill bissett on the CD release "rainbow mewsik" (Red Deer College Press, 2000).

Meloche worked with Herb Bayley in the Outward Sound Ensemble from 2002 to 2007. Their first CD release was "Cloudburst" (in collaboration with British musician Martin Archer) on the Discus Records label (Sheffield, UK). Meloche's 20-year retrospective "Impossible Shapes" was issued by the English Electric label in 2005 and has garnered positive reviews in The Wire, Gramophone and All Music Guide.

Meloche currently works as half of the duo the Transmorphous Sound Ensemble which was formed with Richard Moule in 2009. They have performed in several contexts including the Electric Eclectics Festival, LOLA Festival etc... They have appeared on bills with such other performers as Tony Conrad, Damo Suzuki, Rhys Chatham, Nicolas Collins and The Necks. Their first two CD releases (... already in progress... and Limelight) have been issued via their Transmorphous Editions imprint.

Text-based collaborations have also remained important as Meloche continues to work on a regular basis with sound-poet Penn Kemp. Together they have produced works for CD (Darkness Visible) as well as commissioned works such as Xtra Texture. Kemp was also one of the featured performers in Meloche's alt.opera Communication Breakdown along with actor Jeff Culbert.

In 2010, both Kemp and Moule participated in the live performance of The Space Between which was a celebration of Meloche's thirty years working in electronic media.

Chris Meloche's work has been supported by grants from the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council. He is a founding member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and theWorld Forum for Acoustic Ecology. From 1990 to 2015, he was a broadcaster on CHRW-FM. He was the host and producer of the radio programme Wired for Sound for 22 years until April 2015."

"Martin Archer was born in Sheffield, England, in 1957. He started playing saxophone at age 15 and first got active on the Sheffield improvisational scene in 1973. In the early '80s, he recorded an LP with Bass Tone Trap, his first group. In 1983 he formed the saxophone quartet Hornweb, which, in ten years of existence, released three albums. It is during that time that Archer released his first solo album, Wild Pathway Favourites (1988) and founded the Discus label on which he since releases all his music.

In 1993, he disbanded Hornweb and turned to synthesizers and sequencers while shifting his activities from stage to studio. He developed a compositional approach in which he records improvisers soloing, then manipulates this raw material, combining it with electronics and structuring it into a whole new piece. This technique is illustrated on Wild Pathway Favourites, Ghost Lily Cascade (1996), and Pure Water Construction (with bassist Simon H. Fell, released in 1999). Later works such as Winter Pilgrim Arriving (2000) moved toward more constructed and less abstract pieces, even making room for melodies and rhythm tracks at times.

Apart from his solo work, Archer is also involved in Ask, a duo with guitarist John Jasnoch, and Transient v Resident, an ambient electronics project with Chris Bywater."-All Music, François Couture

"Martin Archer is a composer / improviser who is equally at home on stage or in the studio. His own distinctive saxophone playing is rooted in AACM jazz. Through his use of keyboards and electronics, and as a studio producer, he extends this interest into extended song form and leftfield rock music. He is also co-director of the uncategorisably avant choir Juxtavoices.

His principle music work is the Discus Music label, the imprint for his various releases, notably by the groups described below.

His current jazz based projects include Engine Room Favourites (current a 4 drummer, 14 piece big band), Story Tellers (6 piece group including shaman instruments alongside the conventional instruments), plus various ad hoc smaller groups. All of these are strongly aligned with AACM tradition and teaching.

Archer has a long running duo with veteran vocalist Julie Tippetts. Each of their highly acclaimed CD releases deliberately explores song from a different perspective - the duo aims to be truly progressive, and takes in elements from jazz, rock, soul and pure abstraction.

Archer's main live performance vehicle is the trio Inclusion Principle with Herve Perez and Peter Fairclough. The group operates in a space between electronics, nu-jazz, contemporary electroacoustic music and free improvisation. In performance you will hear pure jazz skill, electronic beats and areas of texture and abstraction all seamlessly woven into a fascinating and constantly shifting tapestry of sound.

The sprawling Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere was formed by Archer as an improvising rock group with shades of Terry Riley, Magma, Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, very much in the progressive / krautrock tradition, and noted for its large scale string, horn and vocal arrangements.

Also in rock music, Archer is a member of the USA based heavier than plutonium prog / sludge / zeuhl group Combat Astronomy under the direction of Jamie Huggett.

Surprising, delighting and occasionally alarming audiences for a number of years now, Juxtavoices is a 30 piece choir for mainly untrained voices co directed by Archer with Alan Halsey which has racked up dozens of performances and issued three CDs.

This eclectic combination of sources and highly individual applications makes Archer a unique inhabitant of the school of English maverick composer / improvisers. "-Discus

"Gino Robair has created music for dance, theater, radio, television, silent film, and gamelan orchestra, and his works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He was composer in residence with the California Shakespeare Festival for five seasons and served as music director for the CBS animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. His commercial work includes themes for the MTV and Comedy Central cable networks.

Robair is also one of the "25 innovative percussionists" included in the book Percussion Profiles (SoundWorld, 2001). He has recorded with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and Eugene Chadbourne, among many others. In addition, Robair has performed with John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Fred Frith, Eddie Prevost, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Myra Melford, Wadada Leo Smith, and the Club Foot Orchestra.

Robair is a founding member of the Splatter Trio and the heavy-metal band, Pink Mountain. In addition, he runs Rastascan Records, a label devoted to creative music.

As a writer about music technology, Robair has contributed to Mix, Remix, Guitar Player, and Electronic Musician (EM) magazine, where he was an editor for 10 years. He is the author of two books, including The Ultimate Personal Recording Studio (Thompson; 2006)."

Lyn Hodnett is an artist and Musician based in Sheffield. She has had numerous exhibitions and sound performances, and is a member of Juxtavoices.