"Biography

Born 1960 in Zürich/Switzerland.

1982-1986 studies with Bob Cunningham and Billy Brooks at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern.

1992-1996 studies with Pierre Favre at the Conservatorium in Luzern.

1995 studies in Composition with Siegfried Kutterer in Basel.

Workshops with George Lewis, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Jojo Mayer, Han Bennink and others.

Since the middle of the 80th's he's involved in many projects between Jazz, improvised and written New Music.

Since 1991 he played many solo concerts in all over Europe and Russia.

Regular works with dancers above all with Nina F. Schneider and her dance company. (1994-2002)

He works for theatre, film and video.Collaborations and concerts with

Al Maslakh Ensemble, Claus van Bebber, Burkhard Beins, Christian Buck, John Butcher, Gene Coleman, Bertrand Denzler, Jacques Demierre, Michel Doneda, Axel Dörner, John Edwards, Donat Fisch, Christoph Gallio, Mich Gerber, Malcolm Goldstein, Eugen Gomringer, Barry Guy, Charlotte Hug, Jason Kahn, Hans Koch, Jonas Kocher, Tomas Korber, Annette Krebs, Fine Kwiatkowski, Joke Lanz, Urs Leimgruber, London, Improvisers Orchestra, Paul Lovens, Werner Lüdi, Michael Lytle, Paul Lytton, Enrico Malatesta, Albert Mangelsdorff, Michael Moser, Norbert Möslang, Günter Müller, Lauren Newton, Andrea Neumann, Lucas Niggli, Evan Parker, Simon Picard, Lê Quan Ninh, Ignaz Schick, Alex von Schlippenbach, Irène Schweizer, Christine Sehnaoui, Günther Sommer, Jürg Solothurnmann, Michael Thieke, Michael Vorfeld, Phil Wachsman, Christian Weber, Michel Wintsch, Michael Zerang, Ingar Zach, Alfred Zimmerlin and many others.Labels

His work is released on labels like: for4ears, formed, HatOLOGY, Leo, Klangbad, Presto!?, Rossbin, mikroton, Monotype, Quakebasket, hiddenbell, Creative Sources, Origin, Percaso, Wandelweiser, Unit and others.Festivals

Christian Wolfarth has played at some festivals such as:Festival Total Meeting (F), Festival Densités (F), Les Arts à Gahard (F), Wien Modern (A), Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon (A), Festival Pulsi (I), LEM Festival (ES), Störung Festival (ES), At Harbour (CR), Percussion Festival (RU), Skanu Mezs (LET), Musica Genera (PL), Festival Blaue Fabrik (D), ZAM Labor (D), Klangbad Festival (D), Humanoise Congress (D), Festival Rue du Nord (CH), Festival de la Cité (CH), Festival Akouphène (CH), Festival Archipel, (CH), Onze Plus (CH), Jazzfestival Willisau (CH), Festival ZweiTageZeit (CH), Unerhört (CH), Maiers Ohr (CH), Stanser Musiktage (CH), Festival SehnsOhr (CH), Knoten Festival (CH), TonArt (CH), Taktlos Festival (CH)"

"Born München, Germany, 1954; drums and electronics. Though born in Germany, Günter Müller has lived in Switzerland since 1966. From 1981 he has been playing a unique drum set with a mobile pick-up and microphone system of his own invention which allows hand-generated sounds on drums and percussion to be modulated electronically. Since 1998 minidiscs, and since 2002 an ipod, have been included in his electronic set. Nowadays he often plays ipod and electronics only.

Müller was a founding member of the trio Nachtluft, with Andres Bosshard and Jacques Widmer, a group that have created sound-installations and sound-architecture, and of the electronic quartet POIRE_Z with Erik M and Voice Crack. He has worked in a wide variety of contexts: solo; in ad-hoc groupings; and often in duo with, among others, Taku Sugimoto, Jason Kahn, Steinbrüchel, Norbert Möslang, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tomas Korber, Lê Quan Ninh, Keith Rowe, Erikm, Carlos Zingaro, Sachiko M, Michel Doneda and Fabrice Charles. Günter Müller runs the record label For 4 Ears.

"Turntablist Joke Lanz creates autonomous sound-cells that melt into a language free of any function. He combines ritual reductionism with anarchistic playfulness, atmospheric soundscapes with cut-up noise and physicalness with unpredictability.

Best known for his international acclaimed Noise project 'Sudden Infant', Joke Lanz is presenting his work since 25 years all over the world. Born in Switzerland and currently operating out of Berlin, he is one of the most prolific and profound artists working in the border zones where performance and body art meet Improvisation and Noise.

Joke Lanz has released his works on some of the most prominent record labels in the noise underground i.e. RRR, Schimpfluch, Tochnit Aleph, Blossoming Noise, Entr'acte, Artware, SSSM, Klanggalerie, Some Bizarre, iDeal Rec and performed with the likes of Peter Kowald, Christian Marclay, Rudolf Eb.er, Z'EV, Carlos Giffoni, Daniel Menche, Christian Weber, Charlotte Hug, Christian Wolfarth, Astro, The New Blockaders, GX Jupitter-Larsen and many more."

"Born in 1950, Hans-Joachim Irmler began experimenting with sound-generating technology at a very early age. As a teenager, he built his first organ. In 1969, he moved to Hamburg, where he studied art and worked for television. There, he was drawn into a collective of musicians and filmmakers. Out of this loose group, a band crystallized which would become known as Faust - a band which subsequently became known to people with an interest in avantgarde music all around the world.

The band negotiated a contract with Polydor in 1971 in which they were granted their own studio and custom-built sound-processing equipment (unheard of for a "pop" or "rock group" at that time). On their eponymous debut in 1971 (pressed on clear vinyl and housed in a transparent cover), one can hear familiar sounds augmented with electronically generated and distorted ones, which made Faust into probably the most far-out album ever released on a major label. This musical and technological transmutation has become the leitmotiv of Irmler's aesthetic. He always worked with self-built or heavily customized equipment. Thus it is small wonder that when Faust folded in 1975 he started his own keyboard workshop.

But Faust never really stopped, there were always reunions - sometimes private, sometimes public. In 1994, he and two other core-members of Faust record Rien, the first album in 20 years,. It was produced by Jim O'Rourke and released on Jeff Hunt's Table Of Elements, one of the prime labels for so-called post-rock in the 90s. Irmler went on to form his own label Klangbad in 1996, on which he published not only Faust, but also other bands, most of whom he recorded in the label's own studio (including Custer, Dieter Moebius, Circle, Ectogram, Nightingales, Ole Lukkye, to name but a few) . In 2004, the studio relocated to the premises of a disused paper factory in the rural Swabian village Scheer. It contains all of Irmler's equipment built over the last 30 years as well as new, computer-based recording tools.

Initially established as a thank you-party for the volunteers who helped in building the new studio, Irmler now runs and curates the internationally acclaimed Klangbad Festival. Since 2004, this annual event attracts audacious locals as well as international music lovers from all over the globe.

After he recorded and released his first solo-album Lifelike in 2003, Irmler has embarked on a long series of improvisations and collaborations with other musicians, among them musician, composer and multimedia artist Alfred 23 Harth (Harth/Irmler/Müller - Taste Tribes on For4ears records), the percussionist Z'ev (on the Fauz't-CD), drummers Christian Wolfarth and Lucas Niggly (the latter of Steamboat Switzerland-fame), Hans Reichel (guitarrist extraordinaire & inventor of the Daxophone) and trumpeter Franz Hautzinger."