"Magnus Granberg is a composer and performer working at an intersection between contemporary chamber music and improvisation. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Born in Umeå in 1974, he studied saxophone and improvisation at the University of Gothenburg and in New York in his late teens and early twenties. Self-taught as a composer, he formed his own ensemble Skogen in 2005 trying to integrate experiences, methods and materials from various traditions of improvised and composed musics into a new modus operandi. Now mainly working with the ensemble Skogen and the newly formed Skuggorna och ljuset, while also writing music on commission for different ensembles and projects. He is also active as an improvisor in different contexts, mainly playing the clarinet.

His music has been performed in Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, England, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia, broadcast by public radio channels in England (BBC Radio 3 and 6), Germany (SWR 2), Sweden (SR P2), Estonia, Slovenia, Serbia, Hungary and the United States, and has been published by the British record label Another Timbre.

Recent work includes a commission from Another Timbre and Ensemble Grizzana and collaborations with musicians such as David Sylvian, Christoph Schiller and the Swiss duo Diatribes.

He has in the last decade also, more or less regularly, collaborated with musicians such as Angharad Davies, Tisha Mukarji, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Anna Lindal, Kristine Scholz, Rhodri Davies, Simon Allen, Christoph Schiller and Ko Ishikawa."

"Miki Maruta studied the koto under Tadao Sawai, Kazue Sawai and Takako Kikuuta, and graduated from the Takasaki College of Music with top honors, after earning a scholarship there to study koto music. For two years beginning in 1990, she taught koto music and the jiuta sangen genre as a guest musician at Wesleyan University in the United States. In 1994 she was selected for an internship in the performing arts at the Agency for Cultural Affairs and that same year played at the 12th Interlink Festival. In 1996 Maruta performed at the Tampere Music Festival and in 1998 participated in Butch Morris' "U.S. Conduction Tour." Also in 1998 she was invited to perform at a concert put on by the Korean Contemporary Music Society. Maruta appeared in a festival sponsored by Kanagawa Prefecture in 1999, the sixth "Hibiki no Renaissance," and played a concert that year together with Terry Riley. She appeared in concert in Tunisia in 2001 at the behest of the Japan Foundation. That same year she released a solo CD on King Records entitled Tori no Youni (Like a Bird). After performing a solo recital in 1995, she began giving regular live shows primarily in the Tokyo area that feature a wide range of materials, from classic pieces to first performances of classic songs, recordings, and improvisation. While doing so she has utilized her flexible sensibility and adaptability to collaborate with artists across an array of genres. Maruta's performances at music festivals both in Japan and abroad have also been warmly received."

"Ko Ishikawa is a Sho (Japanese bamboo mouth organ) player and is a member of the Gagaku ensemble "Reigakusha". He was born in Tokyo in 1963 and studied Sho and Gagaku music with masters Mayumi Miyata, Hideaki Bunno and Shiba Sukeyasu."

"Toshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.

He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar, and started working on circuit bending. He uses a mixing console as a live, interactive musical instrument: "Nakamura plays the 'no-input mixing board', connecting the input of the board to the output, then manipulating the resultant audio feedback."

Nakamura's music has been described as "sounds ranging from piercing high tones and shimmering whistles to galumphing, crackle-spattered bass patterns."

Nakamura founded the ensemble A Paragon of Beauty in 1992. He has recorded solo albums, worked as a session musician, and collaborated with artists including Sachiko M ("a kindred spirit"), Otomo Yoshihide, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Nicholas Bussmann, Taku Sugimoto, Tetuzi Akiyama, dancer Kim Ito, and drummer Jason Kahn."