"One of the finest players to have come out of Alan Silva's IACP school, cellist Didier Petit has been active on the French free improvisation scene since the mid-'80s. His playing style relies mostly on double-string arco technique. He is also often heard vocalizing on top of his instrument. He performs regularly with Parisian improvisers like Michel Doneda, Daunik Lazro, and Denis Colin, and has performed with Sakis Papadimitriou, Roger Turner, Marilyn Crispell, and Carlos Zingaro. His best-known group is the quartet NOHC, from the late '90s. He is the founder of the new music label In Situ.

Petit was born in a musical family. He started on cello at age six and attended the conservatory until age 15. At this point he turned his back on his classical upbringing. Hearing Sun Ra & His Arkestra and Alan Silva's Celestrial Communication Orchestra had the power of a revelation and soon the cellist embarked on the avant-garde jazz train. He enrolled in the bassist's IACP. For the next ten years or so he studied there, then taught and performed administrative tasks, all the while playing in the CCO. During this period, he met saxophonist Michel Lobko who introduced him to the European scene of free improvisers. With him and Christine Janvier, he organized the first Décades de Musiques Improvisées in 1985, a first exercise in musical activism and networking. In 1990 he founded In Situ, a label he has pampered for 12 years before leaving Théo Jarrier in charge in 2002.

1990 is also the year Petit released his first solo album, Sorcier, on the British label Leo Records. A number of collaborations followed, including the avant-musical theater troupe Un Drame Musical Instantané. He developed a particularly strong relationship with bass clarinetist Denis Colin, playing in his trio since 1994. In turn he invited Colin to take part with saxophonist Daunik Lazro and drummer Michael Nick to his own quartet NOHC, the idea of which sparked in 1990. A first album came out in 1998 on In Situ, followed by NOHC on the Road on Leo two years later. A second solo album, Déviation, appeared in 2000 on La Nuit Transfigurée."-François Couture

"Larry Ochs (b. May 3, 1949, New York City) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Ochs studied trumpet briefly but concentrated on tenor and sopranino saxophones. He worked as a record producer and founded his own label, Metalanguage Records, in 1978, in addition to operating the Twelve Stars studio in California. He co-founded the Rova Saxophone Quartet, and also worked in Glenn Spearman's Double Trio. A frequent recipient of commissions, he composed the music for the play Goya's L.A. by Leslie Scalapino in 1994 and for Letters Not About Love, which was named best documentary film at SXSW in 1998. He has also played in a new music trio called Room and the What We Live ensemble. He has recorded several albums as a leader. He formed the group Kihnoua in 2007 with vocalist Dohee Lee and Scott Amendola on drums and electronics, which released Unauthorized Caprices in 2010. He is married to the poet Lyn Hejinian."

"Miya Masaoka, musician, composer, performance artist, has created works for koto, laser interfaces, laptop and video and written scores for ensembles, chamber orchestras and mixed choirs. In her performance pieces she has investigated the sound and movement of insects, as well as the physiological responses of plants, the human brain, and her own body. Within these varied contexts of sound, music and nature, her performance work emphasizes the interactive, live nature of improvisation, and reflects an individual, contemporary expression of Japanese gagaku aural gesturalism.

Masaoka's work has been presented in Japan, Canada, Europe, Eastern Europe and she has toured to India six times. Venues include V2 in Rotterdam, Cybertheater in Brussels, Elektronisch Festival in Groningen, the Cleveland Performance Art Festival, The Electronik Body Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia, Radio Bremen, Germany, Festival of Lights, Hyberadad, India, and the London Musicians Collective.

Since forming and directing the San Francisco Gagaku Society, Masaoka has been creating new ways of thinking about and performing on the Japanese koto. She has developed a virtuosic and innovative approach, including improvisation and expanding the instrument into a virtual space using computer, lasers, live sampling, and real time processing.

Masaoka has been developing koto interfaces with midi controllers since the 1980's originally with Tom Zimmerman, co-inventor of the Body Glove. Since then, she has she has worked at STEIM, Amsterdam, CNMAT, and with Donald Swearingen to build interfaces with the computer and koto, at times using pedals, light sensors, motion sensors and ultrasound. With the koto connected directly to her laptop, she records her playing live, and processes the samples in real time. This new koto is able to respond dynamically and interactively in a variety of musical environments, and improvise with the processed sounds."

"When Xu Fengxia was 5 years old she started to learn instruments. She first played the Chinese lute "Pipa", but when she started to study at the Shanghai Music Conservatory she focussed on the "Sanxian" (usually a plucked instrument, but as you can see it also is possible to use a bow!). The picture was taken during her first solo concert at the Conservatory. She mastered four instruments: guzheng, guqin, sanxian and a small lute called liuqin. After her graduation Xu Fengxia joined the famous Shanghai Orchestra of Chinese Music. She worked there as a soloist on the sanxian. Some of her early solo work has been documented on a Hugo Records (Hongkong) sampler. Meanwhile Xu Fengxia also played solo music of Paganini and was the soloist in a contemporary concert for sanxian and symphony orchestra.

The 80s brought new cultural influences to China. Young people got interested in Rock and Pop music from abroad. So, Xu Fengxia started to play the bass in Shanghai`s first Ladies Rockband. They played also possible venues from bars to football stadiums.

In the 90s Xu Fengxia began to live in Germany. She joined the Gufeng Ensemble which was the most famous group for traditional Chinese music in Europe.

Xu Fengxia had been playing the first concert with musicians of jazz and improvised music 1990 in Shanghai (with flutist Albert Preisfeld and violinist and composer Lutz Wagner). The 90`s brought a band called Shanghai Connection. It began as a trio with Xu Fengxia, Albert Preisfeld and Lutz Wagner. Later it was a sextet with Rolf Sudmann (piano), Zhang Zhenfang (erhu), Rudi Mahall (clarinet), Roland H.H.Bisswurm (drums), Li Jing Xia (pipa) and Xu Fengxia. They played compositions of Lutz Wagner. This was the first time when Xu Fengxia "got mad" and started improvising.

In the mid 90`s Xu Fengxia began an intensive collaboration with the late Peter Kowald, one of the main figures in improvised music worldwide.With Gunda Gottschalk (violin) and Peter Kowald (bass) Xu Fengxia performed worldwide. The trio which was called "Global Village" played at the Vision Festival in New York, at the Poschiavo,Lucerne and Taktlos festivals in Switzerland. With Peter Kowald and reed player Alfred Harth Xu Fengxia played the Moscow Pushkin Festival. When she had duo concerts with Peter in Boston and New York in september 2002 he all of the sudden died of a heart attack.Xu Fengxia describes Peter Kowald as her main influence to open up for new musical horizons. Also, Peter was a wonderful person and a good friend.The picture was taken after a concert in Hagen/ GermanyXu Fengxia works with composers and orchestras

Until now, Xu Fengxia often plays solo parts in the compositions of Chinese Composers like Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong, Kee Yong, Xu Shuya, Qin Wencheng and many more. She cooperated with the Nieuw ensemble Amsterdam, the Flemish Symphony Brugge, Ensemble Recherche, Staatstheater Saarbruck and others."

"Born in 1956, French Clarinettist Sylvain Kassap has been one of the greatest improv jazz musicians since the late 70s. A major player on the avant-garde scene, Kassap has performed with Louis Sclavis, Michel Portal, Henri Texier, Bernard Lubat, François Tusques, and many other cutting-edge French musicians. He has also played along side a large number of innovative international musicians such as Evan Parker, John Surman, Barre Philips, Sam Rivers, Hamid Drake, Han Bennink.

Kassap uses his clarinets in ways that go well beyond conventional melodic and harmonic expectations. With percussive bursts and textural sounds, Kassap expands the range and vocabulary of the instrument. He has also been a pioneer in fusing the arts, collaborating with actors, dancers and writers. And, he has made occasional forays into contemporary classical music, performing works by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and other experimental composers. From free improvisation to contemporary and ethnic music, leading French clarinetist Sylvain Kassap explores a world that is rich in colour and finesse, animated by an unquenchable spirit of freedom."