"Frédéric Blondy Born in Bordeaux in 1973.

On completing his studies in Mathematics and Physics at Bordeaux University, Frédéric Blondy dedicated himself full time to music, firstly as a jazz pianist and subsequently as a student at the Bordeaux National Conservatory where he studed piano, harmony, analysis and composition. Since moving to Paris he has worked with Marie-Christine Calvet at the "International Piano Center", refining a body-based approach to the instrument.

As musician, Frédéric Blondy has performed in many festivals and venues in Europe, North America, Middle East and Asia, working with, amongst others Paul Lovens, Rhodri Davies, Lê Quan Ninh, Michel Doneda, Joëlle Léandre, Urs Leimgruber, Thomas Lehn, Daunik Lazro, Radu Malfatti, John Tilbury, Otomo Yoshihide, Mats Gustafsson,.... and developed a thorough work with ensembles like Hubbub, Ethos.

As composer, he wrote music for films, videos, and danse and works with several ensembles.

In 2011 he created the Orchestre de Nouvelles Créations, Expérimentations et Improvisations Musicales (ONCEIM - ensemble of 30 musicians) to develop links between improvisers skills and written music. He is actually artistic director and composer for this ensemble.

He runs for several years a regular workshops on improvisation and contemporary sound practices, first at the Instants Chavirés then as part of the Rendez-Vous Contemporains of Saint Merry.He is a regular speaker at the Cité de la Musique in Paris for workshops on contemporary sound practices and new creation tools.

More occasionally he is requested in many festivals in Europe, North America and Japan to lead courses and presenting lectures aboutimprovisation and contemporary sound practices.

He has made almost twenty recordings published on different European labels. He is a regular guest on national radio for concerts or to participate in broadcasts. His concerts are regularly recorded and broadcast by national radios : France Musique, SWR, BBC,...

He is also involved in the promotion of improvised and contemporary music as well as visual arts through Rendez-Vous Contemporains of Saint Merry and the festival Crak in Paris inviting international artists for concerts, performances, screenings, meetings..."

-Frederic Blondy Website (https://www.fredericblondy.net/bio.html)
10/2/2024

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"Bertrand Denzler is a tenor saxophone player. He has played in Europe and Latin America both as a solo act and with musicians such as Xavier Charles, Peter Frils Nielsen, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Barry Guy, Ninh Lê Quan, Urs Leimgruber, Günter Müller, Bob Ostertag, Norbert Pfammatter, Hasse Poulsen, Mark Sanders, Mathieu Werchowski, and Otomo Yoshihide. He is a member of the groups Hubbub, Nanocluster, Laps, Denzler-Mariage, A3/1, and Chamaeleo Vulgaris. He has put out a number of compact discs on various labels."-ActuelleCD.com (http://www.actuellecd.com/en/bio/denzler_be/)
10/2/2024

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"Jean-Luc Guionnet is an elusive figure. A Parisian artist active in many fields (music, visual arts, cinema), he has mostly worked in electro-acoustics but also has a career in free improvisation, playing alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, church organ, and piano. He has collaborated with Éric La Casa, Éric Cordier, and André Almuro on tape music. His main free improv and jazz projects include Hubbub, Schams, Return of the New Thing, and the Joe Rosenberg quintet.

Guionnet made scientific studies before shifting to fine arts. He studied musique concrete under Iannis Xenakis and Michel Zbar, but also pursued studies in philosophy (esthetics) with Geneviève Clancy. His first works date from the late '80s and are mostly collaborations with filmmaker André Almuro (some have been issued by Ground Fault). Then came a lasting partnership with electro-acousticians Éric Cordier and Éric La Casa. Together they wrote the series "Afflux." Guionnet also produces the Ateliers de Création Radiophoniques ("creative radio workshops") for France Culture. His eclecticism has kept him at bay of recognition -- because to the eye of the press it strips him from some credibility and because running careers in philosophy (he was co-director for the review Terre des Signes from 1993 to 1996), painting (he exhibited from 1992 to 1997), and music simultaneously tends to be time-consuming.

The release of an eponymous CD by Dan Warburton's free jazz quartet Return of the New Thing in 1999 on the respected label Leo Records introduced Guionnet to a wider audience. Since then his activities as an improviser have constantly stretched toward the fringes of experimentalism. His participation in the French-Swiss group Hubbub and his duo with guitarist Olivier Benoit (&Un, 2002) follow the school of Berlin reductionism."

-All Music, François Couture (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jean-luc-guionnet-mn0000231714)
10/2/2024

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"Born in Paris in 1973 and raised in the middle class suburbs, it's on the clotheslines at the end of the garden that Jean-Sébastien Mariage gets introduced to the guitar, well before the transmutation of his BEPC in black Stratocaster, changed very quickly for the Gibson Les Paul he has not dropped since. At 17 and up to 23, he follows the improvisation workshops of the one he still considers today as his music master, Patricio Villarroel. From his brief stint at the Sorbonne, a musicology course, he will remember little more than having heard, during the acoustics lessons, recordings of songs by Amazonian Indians or Vatican bells : it is that at the same time, true musical adventure began - first professional experience at age 19 with a dance company, then meeting at 20's Frederick Galiay, bassist with whom he founded Chamæleo Vulgaris, and first concerts under the aegis of Instants Chavirés. He goes on concerts, then thinks it would be good for him to enter the concervatory (sic), since that's where you learn to play concerts : he studied classical guitar for six years , until the national contest in 2000. There followed a good twenty recordings and hundreds of concerts, solo or in various formations, stamped free improvisation, free rock, even free jazz or noise, with the greatest achievements of French and international improvisers - not to mention collaborations with dance (Karol Armitage or Yukiko Nakamura), theater, poetry and visual arts, but also with composers such as Rhys Chattam, Elianne Radigue, Stephen O'Malley, Frederick Galiay, Peter Ablinger.... In short, a journey is, according to, purist or monomaniac : there has never been, there is, and there will never, probably, that the guitar, he can only do that, but knows how to do everything with it - especially what he is the only one who can do, of course. To know : calmly, with authority, to emerge from the chaos a matter, whatever it is to accept it, to welcome it even, then conscientiously to work it, to polish it... but always to the maximum, and then to a blow of one make him make throat. Leave the earth. Tear the time."

-Inversus Doxa (http://www.inversus-doxa.fr/Biography?lang=fr)
10/2/2024

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"Edward Perraud born in Nantes in 1971

Percussionist, Drummer, composer, improviser and researcher.

He began playing guitar at the age of eight, then learned the trombone and classical percussion at the CNR of Rennes. After a master's degree in musicology at the University of Rennes, he joined the IRCAM doctoral program in 1996 with Hugues Dufour where he obtained a DEA (EHESS / ENS / IRCAM). He entered the CNSM of Paris in the class of Michael Levinas the same year where he obtains in 1998 a 1st prize of musical analysis.

Classical music, contemporary music, jazz (Daniel Humair for 3 years at the CNSM in Paris), Indian (he studied with Patrick Moutal and Ramon Lopez at the CNSM and then Calcutta with Biplab Battacharia at the tablas) Gilles Léothaud in ethnomusicology at the CNSM) and free improvisation, profoundly mark his percussionist play.

He is also a member of the improvised "Hubbub" ensemble with Frederic Blondy, Jean Sébastien Mariage, Bertrand Denzler and Jean-luc Guionnet since 1999. He also founds the duo BIG with his alter ego Frederick Galiay (electric bass) The duo bass / drums under multiple facets: Big drum & bass, Big world, Big Pop.

There are now fifty records on numerous labels worldwide (Germany, USA, Portugal, England, Switzerland, etc ...). He created his own label in 2005 (Quark-records) which today has more than twenty references. In 2008, he founded a duet with the singer Elise Caron: "Bitter Sweets" which explores all forms of improvisation possible in the most varied styles. In 2011, he formed his group: "Synaesthetic Trip" with Benoit Delbecq, Bart Maris and Arnault Cuisinier, his first group as a leader who will be unanimously acclaimed by critics. A second album of his quartet will be released in 2015.

For more than 20 years he has played with many European and American musicians such as Tony Malaby, Bruno Chevillon, Olivier Benoit, Sylvain Kassap, Yves Robert, Thomas de Pourquery (Supersonic), Beniat Achiary, Fred Frith, Paul Rogers, Donnet, Joelle Leandre, John Edwards, Johannes Bauer, Louis Sclavis, Claude Tchamitchian, Bernard Lubat, Michel Portal, Vincent Courtois, Daunik Lazro, Marc Helias, Joe Rosenberg, Project The Bridge by Alexandre Pierrepont which promotes the exchange between American and French musicians.

Das Kapital (Daniel Erdmann, Hasse Poulsen, Edward Perraud) founded in 2001 (Concerts in Russia, Mexico, Honduras, Salavador, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Germany ...), which won the prize for the best Jazz record of 2011 in Germany (Preiss der deutsche Kritik) with his homage to composer Hanns Eisler.

He obtains with Thomas de Pourquery Supersonic as drummer and for his label Quarkrecords the price of the disc of jazz of the year 2014 to the victories of the music.

In autumn 2014 he was called by the actor Philippe Torreton with whom they duet the show "Mec" in tribute to Allain Leprest.

Supporting self-giving, he claims a journey away from the chapels where everything must be possible. He has been a photographer and has been exhibiting for several years (Caen, Tours, Nantes ...)"

-Edward Perraud Website (translated by Google) (https://www.edwardperraud.com/Bio.html)
10/2/2024

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