"New York City-based German-French bassist, composer and improviser Pascal Niggenkemper is a performing and recording artist active on the creative music scene in the US and in Europe.

From 1999-2005 he was musicaly active in Cologne having studied jazz & classical double bass at the Hochschule für Musik. In 2005 he received the DAAD award and moved to New York.

From 2008 to 2010 Pascal led the PNTrio with Tyshawn Sorey and Robin Verheyen. (CD "pasàpas" Konnex 2008 & "urban creatures" JazzHausMusik 2010). The trio toured extensively in Europe performing at the Jazzcologne Festival, Jazzherbst Konstanz and at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Recordings for the WDR and the BR Radio.

In cooperation with Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin, Pascal formed the septet vision7 that performed at Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin, Vive le Jazz in Cologne, Jazz à la Cité in Paris and at the Pori Jazz in Finland. (CD 'Lucky Prime' clean feed records Sept 2013)

In September 2011 Pascal released with Simon Nabatov and Gerald Cleaver the CD/LP upcoming hurricane on NoBusiness Records which is listed among 'Albums of the year' 2011 in the 'The New York City Jazz Record'. The trio performed in Canada and the USA.

He recently recorded a new solo program called: 'look with thine ears' music for bass & preparations was premiered at the Jazzdor Festival in Strasbourg in November 2013. The CD was released in March 2015 on clean feed records. He performed for the France Musique radio broadcast by Anne Montaron called 'a l'improviste'.

In 2014 he presented the double trio 'le 7eme continent' with the program 'talking trash' at the Vive le Jazz festival in Cologne, Germany and the concert was broadcast by WDR3 radio. Their CD was released in May 2016 on clean feed records and the group performed in France, Belgium and Germany.

Pascal is co-leading the groups baloni with Frantz Loriot viola and Joachim Badenhorst clarinets (CD 'fremdenzimmer' 2011, 'Belleke' 2014 & 'Ripples' 2015 clean feed records) PascAli a duo for two prepared basses with Sean Ali (CD 'suspicious activity' creative sources 2012) and Miner's Pick with Thomas Heberer. (CD 'miner's pick' FMR records 2014)

With friends, he curates in NY the house concert series ze couch, where every month artists meet to present their work.

Festival presence includes: Jazzdor Strasbourg-Berlin, Vision Festival New York, Umbrella Festival Chicago, Banlieues Bleues Paris, Strade del Cinema Aosta, météo Mulhouse, Jazzcologne, JIGG Lisbon, Taktlos Zurich, Jazz à la Cité in Paris, ESCUCHA Madrid, Washington DC Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, Middelheim Antwerp, Grenzenlos Köln, undead Jazzfest NYC, D'Jazz Nevers, NewAdits Klagenfurt, Font New York, Music Unlimited Wels, Vive le Jazz Cologne, GONG Aarau, Konfrontationen Nickelsdorf, Ljubljana Jazz Festival etc...

He received the following scholarships/grants: DAAD, Henry Mancini Institute, North Rhine-Westphalia composition stipend."

"Ben Lamar is a prolific composer, vocalist, trumpeter, producer, and music educator. Lamar began his musical journey with the initial influence of his father's diverse vinyl collection and his family's unique music listening rituals. He has been creating music professionally for over 20 years now - performing, recording, producing for, and studying with a number of vital figures in the world of music, including Jazz, Blues, Hip-Hop and Electronic."

"Louis Laurain is a trumpet player, improviser and composer, based in Paris. Born in 1984, he taught himself to play the trumpet and then studied jazz and improvisation at the conservatories of Lyon (CNR) and Paris (CNSMDP). While developing his own personal and original language on his instrument, he researched, through different collaborations, an intuitive and spontaneous approach to sound. His interest is essentially in different forms of improvised sound for various formations,ranging from solo to orchestral.His work is focused principally on two topics. Firstly an acoustic approach to instruments through research on sounds and sound effects in relation to the space in which they are produced. Secondly work on the amplification of instruments ("close miking") with the aim of creating the illusion of an electric or electronic "machine instrument". He collaborated with Eliane Radigue, Stephen o'Malley (Sunn O ))), Pierre Huyghe, Axel Dorner, Nicolas Collins, Yves-Noel Génot, Jérome Noetinger, Zombie-Zombie, Pierce Warnecke, Polyversal souls, Tobias Delius, Arnaud Rivière, Xavier Charles, Ignaz Schick, Joel Grip, Frédéric Blondy."

Mona Matbou Riahi is an Iranian-born clarinetist, composer, and improviser based in Vienna, Austria, known for blending Persian musical influences with contemporary composition, experimental music, and free improv through a highly expressive and technically adventurous approach.

"Joachim Badenhorst (°1981 Antwerp) has been active in the experimental and improvised music scene in Europe and abroad for the past 15 years. Following his master degree in jazz studies at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, he has since divided his time between Belgium and cities in the US and Europe, collaborating and recording with jazz and experimental music ensembles and artists, such as Han Bennink, Tony Malaby and Noël Akchoté while incessantly exploring the visceral elements of sound. His output ranges from solo improvisation to leading large formations, such as his own Carate Urio Orchestra.

Badenhorst is artistically interested in integrating ideas from various different art medias into his musical compositions. He also takes deep interest in revealing the inherent relation between contemporary and traditional musics, having collaborated with traditional musicians from Turkey and Japan, and toured in China with reinterpreted traditional Chinese music.

In recent years, Badenhorst is contemplating the evanescent site specificity of sound as well as the relation between space and sound. In recent years, his work has taken a deeper focus on composition, namely that of computer­based composition and processing. Through continual research and experiment, he delves into a re­imagination of the boundaries between improvisation and composition, of abstract sound explorations and harmonic passage, and continues to attempt at a personal aesthetic language that interact with spaces and engage with different audiences.

Badenhorst appears on over 50 cd's on over 10 record labels. In 2012, he launched his own label KLEIN, as a creative platform to initiate collaborations, experiment and play with unconventional design, and as an outlet for fringe musical projects.

Since 2010 Badenhorst has been developing his solo programme consisting of improvisations and compositions for solo acoustic and electro­acoustic wind instruments."

Tizia Zimmermann is a Swiss accordion player, known for the duo Zimmermann / Lienhard, and as a performer with Lucas Niggli.

Artemis Vavatsika is a Greek accordionist and improviser from Thessaloniki whose work spans contemporary music, free improvisation, performance art, and experimental sound, combining classical training with exploratory approaches to texture and spontaneous interaction.

"Elisabeth Coudoux (born Fügemann) is a cellist at the interface of different musical genres: free improvisation, experimental music, new composed music and jazz. After studying classical studies as a basis, a jazz study was conducted in Cologne with Frank Gratkowski and Prof. Dieter Manderscheid. In addition to her own project (eg Emissatett for what she composed), she is a cellist in many ensembles and works in interdisciplinary projects with dancers, visual artists and writers. She is the initiator and member of IMPAKT, a newly founded collective for free improvisation in Cologne."

Jaumes Privat is an improvising vocalist active in experimental and free improv settings, recognized for collaborative work that emphasizes extended vocal techniques, abstract narrative forms, and spontaneous interaction with acoustic and electronic ensembles.