"John Dikeman was born in Nebraska in 1983 and grew up in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Thanks to the extreme isolation of his hometown, he spent most of his free time practicing and studying music. He quickly discovered the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, and Albert Ayler and instantly connected to the unmatched expressive power of free jazz. John was very fortunate to meet and collaborate with many excellent improvisers at a rather early age. Dikeman started performing professionally at the age of 16 after meeting New Mexican guitarist Stefan Dill who became a mentor for John. Stefan also introduced Dikeman to Jack Wright who was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time. Jack would prove to be one of John's biggest influences and a long time collaborator (as well as short term landlord). John also spent a summer in Arkansas where he was able to woodshed and perform with saxophonist Keefe Jackson and bassist Jon Barrios.

Dikeman left Wyoming in 1999 to study saxophone and composition at the Interlochen Arts Academy and then briefly at Bennington College where he attended courses with drumming legend Milford Graves and was also able to collaborate regularly with drummer Ben Hall. John also studied privately with Joe Maneri during this period.

John then moved to New York City for one year where he worked as a satellite dish technician while performing as much as possible. After NYC, John moved to Philadelphia. Frequent collaborators of this time included Daniel Carter, Lukas Ligeti, and Ty Cumbie in The Color Now Band, Nate Wooley, Mike Pride, Jonathan Vincent, Jack Wright, Toshi Makihara, Jon Barrios, Kurt Heyl, Zack Fuller, Reuben Radding, Ava Mendoza, Raed Yassin, Daniel Carter, Jonathan Fretheim, Mike Barker and many others.

In 2004, Dikeman moved to Cairo, Egypt. In the three years he was there, he worked regularly as a performer, studio musician, and teacher. He performed as a soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, played and traveled throughout North Africa with Nubian pop star Mohamed Mounir, led his own jazz bands which performed weekly in downtown Cairo, performed and recorded with DJ Haze, played countless weddings and party's with The Riff Band, and served as the saxophonist in most Egyptian bands that needed one. He also performed at the Lebanese improvised music festival, Irtijal, in 2005 and 2006.

John moved to Amsterdam in December of 2007, after a brief stay in Budapest, Hungary. Since arriving in Amsterdam, John has jumped at the chance to re-enter the world of improvised music. John performs regularly in the Netherlands in venues including the Bimhuis, Paard van Troje, Café Wilhelmina, Paradox, Lindenberg, OT301, etc... John is also a curator for the OT301 New Music and Dance Program as well as the Tabula Rasa series at the Maarten Luther Kerk. Since moving to Amsterdam John has performed with Joe McPhee, Han Bennink, Andy Moor, Terrie Ex, Roy Campbell, Hilliard Greene, Mike Reed, Jeb Bishop, Ab Baars, Nate McBride, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Vatcher, Jason Roebke, Wilbert De Joode, Dirk Bruinsma, Jasper Stadhouders, Onno Govaert, Andrea Taeggi, Frank Rosaly, Klaus Kugel, Yedo Gibson, Renato Ferreira, Raoul van der Weide, Eric Boeren, Viljam Nybacka, Wim Jenssen, Oscar Jan Hoogland, Ivo Bol, Alfredo Genovesi, Meinrad Kneer, Gerri Jager, Stevko Busch, and numerous other musicians from the Dutch and international improvisation scene."

"Born 27 July 1960; Piano, electronics. Pat Thomas started playing at the age of 8 and studied classical music and played reggae. He began playing jazz at sixteen after seeing Oscar Peterson on television then listened to snatches of jazz on the radio before, in 1979, playing his first serious improvised gigs. From 1986 he played with Ghosts which was Pete McPhail and Matt Lewis.

In addition to programming his keyboards, Pat Thomas also utilises prerecorded tapes. He told Chris Blackford (1991), 'As far as the tapes are concerned I'll probably just sit in front of the TV and tape whatever's going on and so some editing afterward to decide what might be useful. ...But I don't actually put a label on each tape saying what's on there, so when I come to use them I don't know what I'm going to be playing. That obviously prevents me from setting things up. I pick them at random and see what happens. So I'm just as surprised as anybody else at what comes out'.

In 1988 he was awarded an Arts Council Jazz Bursary to write three new electroacoustic compositions for his ten-piece ensemble, Monads: Roger Turner and Matt Lewis, percussion; Pete McPhail, WX7 wind synthesizer; Neil Palmer, turntables; Phil Minton, voice; Phil Durrant, violin; Marcio Mattos, bass; Jon Corbett, trumpet; Geoff Searle, drum machines. The intention was to feature different aspects of electronics using improvisation so, for example, one piece - Dialogue - featured Pete McPhail and Neil Palmer, another concentrated on the interaction of percussionists and drum machines, and a third piece had Phil Minton and Jon Corbett improvising with a computer. The pieces were performed at the Crawley Outside-In Festival of new music in 1989.

Pat Thomas was invited by Derek Bailey to play in Company Week in 1990 and 1991 and he also took part in the Ist International Symposium for Free Improvisation in Bremen with the guitarist. He has been a member of the Tony Oxley Quartet (documented on Incus CD 15) and played in Oxley's Angular Apron along with Larry Stabbins, Manfred Schoof and Sirone at the 8th Ruhr Jazz Meeting and in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. He plays with Lol Coxhill in a range of combinations from duo to being a member of 'Before my time', is a member of Mike Cooper's Continental Drift, and he has a well established duo with percussionist Mark Sanders and a trio with Steve Beresford and Francine Luce. In 1992 Pat Thomas formed the quartet Scatter with Phil Minton, Roger Turner and Dave Tucker; funded by the Arts Council they toured the UK in 1993 and again at the beginning of 1997.

On the 'Festival circuit', Pat Thomas has appeared at: the Young Improvisors Festival at the Korzo Theatre, Den Haag (with Jim O'Rourke, Mats Gustafsson and Alexander Frangenheim); Angelica 95 in Bologna, Italy; the Stuttgart 5th Festival of Improvised Music 96 (with Fred Frith, Shelly Hirsch, Carlos Zingaro and others); and the 3rd International Festival 96 in Budapest (with Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Russell and Roger Turner).

"After taking up the bass, around 1987, John Edwards co-formed The Pointy Birds who went on to win awards for their music for The Cholmondeleys and Featherstonehaughs dance troupes. The group appeared at festivals in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Moers, Leverkusen, Copenhagen. Around 1990, Edwards played his first gigs with London improvisers such as Roger Turner, Lol Coxhill, Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton.

Between 1990 and 1995 Edwards was a member of three touring groups simultaneously: B-Shops For The Poor, The Honkies and GOD. During this period he also became an increasingly regular player on the London improvised music scene and performed his first solo gigs; he composed and performed music theatre with the bass and cello duo The Great Explorers, street-busked a lot and appeared at many more festivals in Germany, Estonia, France, Italy, Czech, etc.

Since 1995 John Edwards has become a "mainstay" of the London scene, playing with just about everybody, an activity that has seen him clocking up between 150 and 200 gigs a year. He has become regular player with Evan Parker, in many groupings, and with Tony Bevan, Veryan Weston, and Elton Dean, often in collaboration with Mark Sanders on percussion. He has become a more frequent player on the European (and festival) scene, appearing at Taktlos, Ulrichsburg, Nickelsdorf, Budapest, New Zealand and in the USA. He continues to work on solo performances."

"Steve Noble is London's leading drummer, a fearless and constantly inventive improviser whose super-precise, ultra-propulsive and hyper-detailed playing has galvanized encounters with Derek Bailey, Matthew Shipp, Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Stephen O'Malley, Joe McPhee, Alex Ward, Rhodri Davies and many, many more.

In the early eighties, Noble played with the Nigerian master drummer Elkan Ogunde, Rip Rig and Panic, Brion Gysin and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble, before going on to work with the pianist Alex Maguire and with Derek Bailey (including Company Weeks 1987, 89 and 90). He was featured in the Bailey's excellent TV series on Improvisation for Channel 4 based on his book 'Improvisation; its nature and practise'. He has toured and performed throughout Europe, Africa and America and currently leads the groups N.E.W (with John Edwards and Alex Ward) and DECOY (with John Edwards and Alexander Hawkins)."