"Ricardo Arias (Bogotá, 1965) is an experimental musician, improviser and sound artist based in Bogotá. He studied electroacoustic music and composition with Gabriel Brncic, flute with Joan Bofill and Hiroshi Kobayashi, and improvisation with Jorge Serraute, in Barcelona, Spain. He also has a BA in Anthropology and an MFA in Integrated Media Arts, both from Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). His work focuses on the use of unconventional instruments and sound sources. He also occasionally makes sound installations and sound objects. He has presented his work at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), ABC NoRio, Experimental Intermedia Foundation (New York), Roulette, Issue Project Room and Diapason Gallery (New York), at the Museum Kunst Palast (Düsseldorf), Galerie Rahel-Haferkamp ( Colonia), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Sowieso (Berlin), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Fundación Joan Miró (Barcelona), FIMAV (Victoriaville, Canada), Electric Eclectics Festival (Meaford, Ontario, Canada) Festival Experimenta (Buenos Aires) , the Museum of Modern Art (Bogotá), Teatro Colón (Bogotá),matik-matik (Bogotá) and Espace SD (Beirut) among many other places. He has collaborated with numerous plastic and sound artists and experimental musicians from around the world, such as Axel Dörner, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mange Valencia, Raed Yassin, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Mann, Anne Wellmer, Yasunao Tone, Andrew Drury, Jane Rigler, Naoya Yoshikawa, Judy Dunaway, Nicolas Collins, Dror Feiler, Peter Brötzmann, and Miguel Frasconi among many others. In the last fifteen years he has curated several sound art festivals and exhibitions: In-Audito (National University, Bogotá), Vociferous (Diapason Gallery, New York), Densities (Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá), Sonósferas (Espacio Odeón, Bogotá ), Al Claro de Luna (Santa Fé Gallery, Bogotá), Paraphernalia (Casa Hofmann, Bogotá). He has published essays in Experimental Musical Instruments and in the Leonardo Music Journal. He is Associate Professor in the Art Department at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá."

"Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Holland) is a self-taught composer, performer and poet.He went to university for mathematics and musicology but did not finish those studies.In the late 1970s he took up saxophone and started to compose music.A few years later he discovered his potential as a vocal performer, at first in reciting poetry and later on in improvisations and his own compositions. For almost two decades the voice was his main means for the discovery and development of new sounds.From around the year 2000 on Blonk started work with electronics, at first using samples of his own voice, then extending the field to include pure sound synthesis as well.He took a year off of performing in 2006. As a result, his renewed interest in mathematics made him start a research of the possibilities of algorithmic composition for the creation of music, visual work and poetry.

As a vocalist, Jaap Blonk is unique for his powerful stage presence and almost childlike freedom in improvisation, combined with a keen grasp of structure. He has performed around the world, on all continents. With the use of live electronics the scope and range of his concerts has acquired a considerable extension.

Besides working as a soloist, he collaborated with many musicians and ensembles in the field of contemporary and improvised music, like Maja Ratkje, Mats Gustafsson, Joan La Barbara, The Ex, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Ebony Band. He premiered several compositions by the German composer Carola Bauckholt, including a piece for voice and orchestra. A solo voice piece was commissioned by the Donaueschinger Musiktage. On several occasions he collaborated with visual computer artist Golan Levin, for the Ars Electronica Festival.

Blonk's work for radio and television includes several commissioned radio plays.He also makes larger-scale drawings of his scores, as well as visual poetry, which is being exhibited.

He has his own record label, Kontrans, featuring a total of 25 releases so far. Other Blonk recordings appeared on various labels, such as Staalplaat, Basta, VICTO, Ecstatic Peace, Monotype Records, Terp and Elegua Records.His book/CD 'Traces of Speech' was published in 2012 by Hybriden-Verlag, Berlin. Forthcoming is a sequel with the title "Traces of Cookery".A comprehensive collection of his sound poetry came out as a book with 2 CDs in 2013, entitled "KLINKT"."