"Uwe Oberg *1962 Offenbach / Germany, lives in Wiesbaden nearby Frankfurt.

He started playing piano at the age of seven, moved in the early 80s from popular music to Jazz and joined in 1986 the KOOPERATIVE NEW JAZZ / ARTist Wiesbaden, an association of improvising musicians. Improvisation is the keyword for his work. Impressed by Free Jazz and New Music, he developed exceptional piano techniques; influences are Thelonious Monk, Paul Bley, Cecil Taylor, Don Pullen, Ran Blake, Andrew Hill, the music of Anthony Braxton, the early piano compositions of John Cage as well as european free improvisation. He is also a composer and a highly individual interpret of Jazz-compositions.

He works in various musical contexts: as a soloist he bends the bow from inside piano to the music of Monk. With LACY POOL he dives into the music of Steve Lacy, the duo with SILKE EBERHARD plays originals as well as music by Carla Bley, Annette Peacock a.o. ROPE is an improvising quartet with european line-up. Whatever Oberg plays, he transforms each material in his very personal, twinkling sound without musical borders.

Beside fixed projects he enjoys the improvised encounter with musicians from different styles and cultures. He often played in combination with other artforms, theatre / dance / lyrics, currently mainly with silent films, as a soloist and with ensembles. Cooperation with: ALFRED HARTH, PETER KOWALD, XU FENGXIA, MATTHIAS SCHUBERT, PHILIPPE MICOL, JÜRGEN WUCHNER, ULI PHILLIPP, TONY OXLEY, SVEN-AKE JOHANSSON, RUDI MAHALL, HR JAZZENSEMBLE, HEINZ SAUER, URS LEIMGRUBER, SAADET TÜRKÖZ, SUBROTO ROY CHAUDHURI, PAUL LOVENS, AXEL DÖRNER, FRANK GRATKOWSKI, EVAN PARKER a.m.o.

In December 2007 Oberg got the award HESSISCHER JAZZPREIS. Laudatio by Dr. Wolfram Knauer (in German Language)"

"Rudi Mahall (born 1966 in Nürnberg, Germany) is a contemporary jazz bass clarinetist.

While studying classical clarinet, Mahall shifted towards contemporary music, improvisation and jazz. He is, or was a member of following bands: Avantgardeband Die Hartmann 8, Der Rote Bereich (initially comprehending Frank Möbus, Marty Cook, Jim Black und Henning Sievert), the Trio Tiefe töne für Augen und Ohren (with Sievert and Bill Elgart), Carlos Bicas Azul and Die Enttäuschung (amongst others with Axel Dörner, Jan Roder). He carried out several projects and published CDs with Aki Takase, about the work of Eric Dolphy and others. Mahall participated to Alexander von Schlippenbach's recording of the complete works of Thelonious Monk, published by a prestigious Swiss label, and he is a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra. Moreover, he performed with Conny Bauer, Lee Konitz, Barry Guy, Karl Berger, Paul Lovens, Sven-Åke Johansson, Radu Malfatti, Ed Schuller, Ray Anderson, Kenny Wheeler, Hannes Bauer and many others.

Mahall performed at the Free Music Festival Jazz à Mulhouse in 2008, at the Moers Festival, the JazzFest Berlin, the Leverkusener Jazztage and jazz festivals in New York City, Amsterdam, München, Würzburg, Nürnberg, and he toured in Portugal, southern and eastern Africa."

"Michael Griener, born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1968, began playing drums in 1982, lives in Berlin since 1994.

Under the influence of the HOHE-UFER-concerts initiated by Günter Christmann he became involved early on in the various forms of Jazztradition, Free Improvisation and New Music, which led to a longer collaboration with Christmann in his Vario-projects (a.o. C.I.M.-Festival Den Haag 1990, Moers-Festival 1992, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik1993).

He has worked frequently with dancers, actors and poets (most recently in a project on Paul Celan with German writer Oskar Ansull). His duo KIMMO ELOMAA with electronic wizard jayrope received a grant by the city of Berlin in 2002 Received the 1. price as "most creative soloist" at the "New German Jazz Award" in 2006 His current projects include a.o.:

Uli Gumpert Quartet, TGW (Thieke-Griener-Weber), a Duo with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Lacy Pool, Squakk and Carl-Ludwig Hübsch' Primordial Soup Michael Griener teaches jazz drumming at the University for Music "Carl Maria v. Weber" in Dresden and jazz-history and rhythm at the Jazzschule Berlin."