"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."

"Pianist Marta Warelis (1986) is a vibrant performer with a strong preference for improvisation and experimentation in all genres. She continually aims for instant composing on the basis of new sounds and influences. Her work draws inspiration from music across the globe including cumbia, Angolan dance music, as well as jazz, western classical music and the various schools of free improvisation. Born and raised in Poland where she graduated with honours from WSJiMR in Wroclaw, Marta moved to Groningen in 2010 to attend the Prins Claus Conservatory. In 2014 she found her place in Amsterdam, very quickly becoming an active member of the local improvisers' scene. Marta has appeared frequently in the Bimhuis, where in 2017 she was given a Carte Blanche in recognition of her remarkable talents. She performs with a variety of creative musicians including Michael Moore, Ab Baars, Mike Reed, Andy Moor, Joost Buis, dancers Lily Kiara and Michael Shumacher, as well with such groups as Hupata!, Omawi, Future Neighbor, Polyband, Edge Ensemble, Strings5, Xavier Pamplona, Warelis/Rosaly/Lumley/Dikeman and Bazooka."

"Aaron Lumley is an exploratory contrabassist and improvising musician. Lumley's solo bass music has been called "no-holds- barred, intense improvisation" (Glenn Hall, Exclaim) that "reaches lonesome heights of the highest mystic calibre" (Aaron Levin, Weird Canada)."

"Born and raised in In-Cheon, Korea; Sun-Mi has a unique perspective of life after her last ten years in Amsterdam. With a signature of rooted groove in combination with well tempered outbursts, Sun-Mi has placed herself strongly in the Dutch jazz scene. By approaching the moment in a somewhat meditative fashion, she achieves the ability to bring something entirely original to the band stand.

Her last album 'A Self-Strewn Portrait' (ZenneZ Records) has won the prize of the Edison Award 2021 in National category. She is the winner of the Dutch Jazz Competition 2018 and the 2nd Prize of the Getxo International Jazz Competition 2017 (Sun-Mi Hong Quintet), in 2022 she released a new album with her quintet on Edition Records.

Quintet: Sun-Mi Hong - Drums; Chaerin Im - Piano; Alessandro Fongaro - Contra Bass; Nicolò Ricci - Tenor Saxophone; Alistair Payne - Trumpet

BIDA Orchestra: Jozef Dumoulin - Keyboard & piano; John Edwards - Bass; Mette Rasmussen - Alto saxophone; John Dikeman - Tenor & Bariton saxophone; Alistair Payne - Trumpet; Sun-Mi Hong - Drums

DUO IN:人: Sun-Mi Hong - Drums; Alistair Payne - trumpet"