"Nicholas Bussmann (born July 7, 1970, in Berlin) is a German musician, composer, sound artist, and curator based in Berlin, renowned for his conceptual approaches to improvisation, live performance, and collaborative projects that blend traditional instrumentation with electronic elements and game-like structures. Bussmann began his career as a cellist in the improvised music scene before transitioning to explore the potentials of computers and electronic devices, emphasizing live performances over studio recordings. His practice often incorporates formal improvisations and playful frameworks, resulting in durational works presented internationally, including in Berlin, Shanghai, Porto, and Milan between 2014 and 2018, with ongoing activities such as exhibitions in 2019. He has held solo exhibitions, such as one at the Taxispalais Kunsthalle Tirol in 2018, and regularly collaborates with artists like Lucile Desamory, Martin Brandlmayr, and Natascha Sadr Haghighian. As a curator, Bussmann founded the annual Grand Prix d'Amour love song competition in Berlin in 2002, fostering experimental interpretations of the genre, and he has curated events like "meine Zeit" at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. His compositional output extends to film scores, radio productions, and sound installations, exemplified by the 2017 collaborative piece Singing Yesterday's News Again with Natascha Sadr Haghighian, which reinterprets daily news through shifting vocal performances to disrupt media narratives. Bussmann also teaches occasionally at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK).

Nicholas Bussmann was born on May 13, 1970, in Berlin, Germany. He grew up in East Berlin, experiencing the social and cultural shifts of the late Cold War and post-reunification period, which later evoked memories of silence and transformation in his reflections on the city's atmosphere. Bussmann's initial musical pursuits centered on the cello, which he played as his primary instrument before transitioning to electronic and computer-based experimentation. This shift marked his entry into Berlin's vibrant scene of real-time improvisation and Echtzeitmusik, where he developed an interest in experimental sounds through self-directed exploration. His early exposures in this environment laid the foundation for diverging from traditional classical playing toward innovative, improvisational approaches.

Bussmann began his musical career as a cellist, receiving formal training on the instrument before exploring broader possibilities in sound production. His early immersion in classical cello techniques laid the foundation for his later work in contemporary music, though specific institutional details remain sparsely documented in public sources. During the 1990s, he transitioned toward improvisational practices, participating in the Berlin Echtzeitmusik scene, which emphasized real-time composition and experimental approaches. This shift marked a pivotal point in his development, blending string performance with electronic elements under the influence of the city's avant-garde community."

"Sven-Åke Johansson born in Mariestad (Sweden). Composer and musician, poet and visual artist, writer and initiator of several music and performance art productions among:" Die Harke und der Spaten", "...über Ursache und Wirkung der Meinungsverschiedenheiten beim Turmbau zu Babel" (Hebbel Theater Berlin, 1994), "Harding Greens - Symphony for Cardboard Packaging" (Sophiensaele Berlin 2010), "Irving Berlin in Berlin" (2013), exibitions, publications of books, last "In St. Wendel am Schlossplatz..." (Texte, 2013), LP, CD, and DVD. Major stylistic forerunner within improvisational music. In the 60s, he developed a European form of freejazz. 1969 establishing M.N.D. (Moderne Nordeuropäische Dorfmusik) with Eisbrenner and Goetz, same year its first vinyl production, "Westberliner Stadtmusik". Extended in the 1970s the drumset with performance practices for carboard, bassbow and foamrubber a.o. Cooperation with visual and performing artists, worldwide. Engagement as an actor in the Burgtheater Vienna, virtuosic drummer, performs also as a singer and narrator. Compositions a.o.: "Seewetter 69" (Radioplay commissioned by Deutschlandradio 2001), "Polis, Wachs und Pomade" (chamber piece for strings, wind instruments and voice, Donaueschinger Musiktage 2001) "MM schäumend"- Overture for Handheld Fire Extinguishers (Akademie der Künste, Berlin 2003), "Concert for 12 tractors", (1996), "Stereo für 8", (Berlin 2005), "Die neue Zeit ist pausenlos" (Berlin 2010). Runs the label SÅJ-CD/DVD Records, Participant in the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art 2010. Wears suits by Sali Saliu."

"Yan Jun was born in 1973 and he grew up in Lanzhou in the province Gansu, where during his teenage years he started writing poetry. He has lived in Beijing since 1999 where he has worked as a music critic, focusing mainly on Chinese underground rock. He founded the record label Sub Jam in 2000, which has since produced a lot of alternative Chinese music. He started making his own music in 2004. Whilst this may be seen as relatively late, his music making can be considered just one of several strings to Yan Jun's bow, along with performance, poetry, writing and curating.

Yan Jun's aesthetic is like a reflection of this borderless, non-hierarchical musical melting pot where everything seems possible. His main sounding materials are field recordings and noise. Esthetically he is interested in sound characteristics such as high frequencies, noise and silence. He plays live, as a soloist or with other musicians and uses lo-tech apparatus, often in improvisation and thus plays a part in the international 'improv' scene. As a composer and musician, he also explores the sonic consequences of body movements, works with video, makes sound installations and writes his own texts for his media works. It comes as no surprise that he has been presented to the Shanghai Biennale, has received a honorarium mention at Prix Ars Electronica and has been invited to the Berlin and Rotterdam international poetry festivals.

With and through different media, Yan Jun is exploring the poetic side of the everyday and of basic materials, exemplified in a few of his works from the last years. Recently, for "Living Room Tour," in Beijing 2014, he visited several private living rooms and from this made a collage of audio and video recordings. The live work "Gestures (Two)" depicts a scene which revolves around a slowly moving and silent figure who is captured in his movements by swarming photographers. In this rather still and quiet performance, the sound of the camera shutters and the flashes give a minimalist commentary on the implication of performing, listening and documentation.

In "Let's act", which was conducted in 2014 in Rotterdam, Yan Jun elegantly links the various cultural activities his oeuvre presents. A text written by Yan Jun about noise and the instrumentalization of noise is juxtaposed with field-recordings and video shots from everyday life. Here noise, rather than being composed, is drawn from a variety of essential parts of life such as communication and social gathering. The work thus artistically displays some of the main features of Yan Jun's music and art. Although he uses a broad range of techniques, he maintains a strong focus and concentration on the everyday and on the importance of the visual as well as an auditive reality."-Andreas Engström