"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."

"Cyril Bondi (drums, percussion) Born in 1980 in Geneva.

In February 1994, he discovered with passion the battery in the basement of a neighborhood house. His first teacher, Alain Frey, quickly taught him the technical bases of his instrument for four years. At the same time, he is interested in jazz and follows workshops at the AMR from 1998 to 2002 as well as Raùl Esmerode's lessons at the CPM in Geneva where he graduated in 2002.

First experiences with the "irony of sound" of which he is a founding member. Atypical group, bringing together a rapper, a harmonica, a guitar and a drums, "the irony of sound" offers for ten years an unclassifiable music, traveling between improvised music and traditional music. (4 albums, a hundred concerts in Switzerland).

At the same time, he is interested in improvised music and jazz and works with musicians from here and elsewhere such as Otomo Yoshihide, Eric Pailhe, Johann Bourquenez, Gabriel Zufferey, Christian Graf, Christophe Berthet, Guillaume Perret and Nicolas Sordet. , Manuel Gesseney, Alex Allflat, Jean Ferarini, Andrès Neira, Martin Wisard, Philippe Helfer, Pascal Alba, ...

From his meeting with the saxophonist Gaël Riondel and the electroacousticien d'incise was born "diatribes", trio with clearly freejazz consonances. (1 album on altrisuoni, 6 albums on the net, tour in Poland (May 06), Italy (Jan 07).

Without stopping in search of new spaces to explore, he uses his instrument as a means to address unknown or surreal worlds to better understand the one in which he produces sound. This enthusiasm for all music pushes him to multiply the experiences in sometimes radically different styles: Jonas (hip-hop), Ianeq (electro), Pascal Alba Group (jazz rock), Pierre Lautomne (French song), Kara (Afro) .

He has appeared during the Jazz Contreband 04 festival, Balelec 05, Cully jazz festval off 05, Festival Electron 06, the AMR festival at Cropettes 05-06, as well as in Switzerland, France, Italy and Poland."

"Laurent PETER, a.k.a. d'incise (Geneva, 1983), drifting musician, grew up inbetween dub sound system and experimental electronic music. Sound explorer, he has no perticular instrument, using whatever can be considered as such, softwares, recordings, objects, percussions, harmonium, etc. He's interested in radicalism, reductionnism, repetitions and conceptual approaches, building specific set-up for each new occasion, in improvised or composed context. He tends to extract the most tiny details of the elements, appreciates slowness and obsessive explorations of simple processes. He's, since many years with Cyril Bondi, behind the INSUB. label, orchetra, the Diatribes duo, and many other things, and does graphic designs."

"Anna Lindal, violin, studied in Sweden and Switzerland. Lived and performed in Switzerland and France for many years, played in the string trio Trio des Lyres specialized in mixed programs with barock and classical music on original instruments as well as contemporary works. During this time the film "Livsstråk" was made which is a musical portrait of Anna Lindal.

From 1983 to 2001 concertmaster of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Stockholm and from 2002 Professor of violin at the Royal college of Music in Stockholm.

Currently Professor in Music att Stockholm University of the Arts and free lance violinist. Engaged in artistic research on interpretation/improvisation and tradition/convention versus contemporary expressions.

Performs regularly as soloist, as chamber musician, in experimental theatre and in different groups for free improvisation. Collaborates with a large number of contemporary composers and has had many new compositions dedicated to her. Made several recordings, among others two solo records with works by John Cage and Christian Wolff together with related composers. Has also been performing instrumental Argentine Tango in the quintet Tango Libre for several years."

"Meier Hans-Jürg
(22. 12. 1964 - 01. 12. 2015)

Basel (BS), Switzerland

Biography
- Raised in Rüschikon/ZH, lives in Basel.
- Studied recorder under the tutelage of Conrad Steinmann at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and composition under Roland Moser at Basel School of music.
Since 1991 - Compositions, from 1995 onwards came there to sound installations and, in 1998, free improvised music
1997 until 2001 - Collaborates on the project Kaskadenkondensator, Basel
1999 until 2004 - Collaborates in the artistic direction of the Festival for Improvised and Composed Contemporary Music
2001 - Wins the Swiss Association of Musician's Marguerite de Reding Prize with the improvisation quartet 'Babels Besen'
2004/05 - Member of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma (ISR) with a working residency at the Spazio culturale des ISR Venice in 2006
Translations from architecture play an ever-increasing role in the compositions of Hans-Jürg Meier. On the one hand side the power of imagination is of fundamental importance in both arts. On the other both address the holistic invention of forms that develop in time and/or space. His compositions are bound in the coaction of nature, form and beauty in an attempt to provide a quasi-tangible experience of the sensible qualities of the musical material (tones, intervals, sound texture)."

"Born in 1960 in Frankfurt am Main. Student in the improvisation class with Albert Mangesdorff in Frankfurt Dr. Hoch's Conservatory. After lessons on trumpet and cello, autodidactic study of percussion and electronic sound synthesis in analogue technology. Focus of artistic work with electronics (modular synthesizer EMS Synthi 'A', also in combination with EMS keyboard controller DK-1, the theremin and other voltage controlling devises) or acoustic setup (selected percussion & objects) is on experimental, electronic and contemporary improvised music. Interdisciplinary projects with dancers, performance artists, visual artists, sound poets and reciters. Lives and works as a special educator/music therapist in Basel. Member of the committee in the Forum für Improvisierte Musik + Tanz - Performance - Multimedia (FIM) Basel."

"Christoph Schiller was born in 1963 in Stuttgart. He studied fine arts at the Kunstakademie Stuttgart and HfBK Hamburg. He later studied piano with Daniel Cholette and music theory in Basel. He has been playing concerts of improvised music on piano since 1987. In recent years the piano has been abandoned in favour of the lighter spinet, for which he has developed specific playing techniques which are influenced by inside piano techniques. Besides keyboard instruments his work with the voice has become increasingly important. He lives in Weil am Rhein and Basel."