"Composer, guitarist and electronics innovator Richard Pinhas is recognized as one of France's major experimental musicians. A pivotal figure in the international development of electronic rock music, Pinhas' stature in France is analogous to Tangerine Dream's in Germany: the father figure of an entire musical movement. The pioneering, aggressive music produced by his band Heldon during the 1970s, fusing electronics, guitar and rock, heralded the industrial and techno to come and remains today vital and unsurpassed. The 'Father' of electronic music in France is also recognized as a world-class guitarist whose "diabolical guitar work" (Progression) earns comparisons with Robert Fripp.

Pinhas received a degree in guitar at 17, and a PhD in philosophy from the Sorbonne, studying under philosopher Gilles Deleuze and writing on time and science fiction. He taught philosophy before abandoning an academic career for Heldon, his 3rd band, whose name derived from Normal Spinrad's writing. Over the course of his subsequent musical career, Pinhas' ongoing philosophical studies and interest in science fiction have fired, infused, and continually renewed his music."

"Masami Akita, born December 19, 1956, better known by his stage name Merzbow, is a Japanese noise musician. Since 1980, he has released over 400 recordings. The name Merzbow comes from the German dada artist Kurt Schwitters' artwork Merzbau (German pronunciation: [ˈmɛʁtsˌbaʊ̯]), in which Schwitters transformed the interior of his house using found objects. The name was chosen to reflect Akita's dada influence and junk art aesthetic. In addition to this, Akita has cited a wide range of musical influences from progressive rock, heavy metal, free jazz, and early electronic music to non-musical influences like dadaism, surrealism, and fetish culture. Since the early 2000s, he has been inspired by animal rights and environmentalism, and has become a vegan.

As well as being a prolific musician, he has been a writer and editor for several books and magazines in Japan, and has written several books of his own. He has written about a variety of subjects, mostly about music, modern art, and underground culture. His more renowned works were on the topics of BDSM and Japanese bondage. Other art forms Akita has been interested in include painting, photography, filmmaking, and Butoh dance. In 2000, Extreme Records released the 50 CD box set known as the Merzbox. Akita's work has been the subject of several remix albums and at least one tribute album. This, among other achievements, has helped Merzbow to be regarded by some as the "most important artist in noise"."

"John Olson aka John Robert Olson

Runs the American Tapes label. Also in groups: Siege Machine and Closed.For the trombone player please use John Olson.

Aliases:Ace Hardware, All Occupancies, Alternate Forces, Arrived Unsuitable, Burnished Company, Colonel Stonesteel & The Desperate Empties, Communication Palace, Community Action, Community Mental Health, Conforming State, Crib Breath, Cripple Crime's "Triangle", D.L. Savings T.X, Dawn Of The Dead, Dead Brain, Dead Comet Alive, Demoon Skirt, Deteriating Agents, Differential Pressures, DJ Coorz, Dwelling Unit, EF HOAM, Empty Set (2), Encounter Group, Ernst Klug, Exported Presence, Fatboy (7), First Responder, Full Scales, Guam River Yellow Philharmonic, Henry & Hazel Slaughter, How People Speak, Imaginary Unit In Electronics, Infecto, Invasion Status, John R. Spykes, Johnny Coorz, Kegcharge, Language (5), Latrine Psychology Guild, Living Mangled, Local Disorder, Lost Anchor, Madness (8), Mastered Observer, Max Raid, Medical Lake, Mollusk Lettuce Lungs, Moralized Rash Sounds, Musician Or Babbler, National Memory Day, Night Of Desired Objects, Noh Humans, Nonsense Mutation, Not Found (2), Oil Of Beauty / Liquid Beauty, Olzone, Other Outlets, Paco Underhill, Panic Players, Personalising Conductance, Prolonged Warnings, Rain Of Dissolved Sedatives, Rick Passages, Rounder, Sad Policemen, Seance Armories & Cast Mind, Shared Menace, Skanatel Attack, Solvent People, Speacil Speacker, Spyked Comet Alive, Spykes, Surprise Island, System Voltages, Tao Perre Pepper, Texaco Olson, The Boiling Seas Of Inzanity & Damage Esq, The Destroyed People Of Emeryville, The Eating People, The Exhumanations, The Finals (3), The Man Who Ate Himself, The Michigan League For Human Services, The Skulls (8), The Tiny Homes Of East Lansing, The Tiny Homes Of Lansing, The Tubes (3), Uncreated (2), Unuseable Signal, Vietnam One, Waves (2), Weapons (2), Weird Feeling, Woman's Skin, Words Of The Incryption Convict, Zero Days United, Zero Set

In Groups:

Abcess, Absence Of Rat Feedings, Ambush In Albany, Animal Sounds (3), Anti-Intelligence, Awkward Squad, Basket Case, Bass Face, Birth Refusal, Breckman Duo, Brinkman's Dead Brain, Burning Graveyard Lights, Cape God, Cardboard Sax, Cass Chamber, Circuit Refusal, Coffee (2), Commune Ills, Connelly & The Machines, Coyote Ugly, Crazy Doberman, Dead Air, Dead Dour Alive, Dead Machines, Death COMM, Dirty Dynamite Gang, Dr. Gretchen's Musical Weightlifting Program, E Ka (S) Boa, Enemy Brains, Evening Spyked, First Christ Of Church, Scientist, Fountain Of Youth, Frozen Alive Men, Graveeaters, Graveyards, Green Palace, Half Case, Handicapper Horns, Have You Seen The Shining?, Invisible Thread, Kill-Devil-Hill, Knoxed-Inn, Lady Spyke, Language Duo, Language Morph, Machine Yardz, Miles Of Birth, Miscarriage, Paekong Mae's Integer & Real Fathom Band, People Pollution, Plants, Pool Water, Psy Three, Public Puberty, Regional Sewer District, Rented Race, Scar-ed, Scare Supply, Scorpion Lollipop, South West Michigan Cultural Clash Center, Speculum Spyked, Spyke Morph, Spyke Point, Spyked Fossils, Spyked Mammal, Spyked Steltzer, Stare Case, Steel Forest, Syndromes, Synth Jerkshop, The Beast (2), The Boy Department Boyz, The Casket Sinkers, The Doomsdayzzz, The Farwood Duo, The Frying Membrane Boyz, The Lake Bottoms, The Mongoloid Men, The Pink Chunk Jazz Band, The Plague Bells, The R.I.P Randy California R.S.V.P Band, The Slathered, The Thin Ensemble, The Turkeys (2), The Ugly Borns, Threshing Floor (2), Tornado Boys, Ugly Museum, Universal Eyes, Universal Indians, Violent Ramp, Warning Sign, Wolf Eyes, Zero Percent Interest"