"Nate Wooley was born in 1974 in Clatskanie, Oregon, a town of 2,000 people in the timber country of the Pacific Northwestern corner of the U.S. He began playing trumpet professionally with his father, a big band saxophonist, at the age of 13. His time in Oregon, a place of relative quiet and slow time reference, instilled in Nate a musical aesthetic that has informed all of his music making for the past 20 years, but in no situation more than his solo trumpet performances.

Nate moved to New York in 2001, and has since become one of the most in-demand trumpet players in the burgeoning Brooklyn jazz, improv, noise, and new music scenes. He has performed regularly with such icons as John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Eliane Radigue, Ken Vandermark, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, and Yoshi Wada, as well as being a collaborator with some of the brightest lights of his generation like Chris Corsano, C. Spencer Yeh, Peter Evans, and Mary Halvorson.

Wooley's solo playing has often been cited as being a part of an international revolution in improvised trumpet. Along with Peter Evans and Greg Kelley, Wooley is considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn, as well as demolishing the way trumpet is perceived in a historical context still overshadowed by Louis Armstrong. A combination of vocalization, extreme extended technique, noise and drone aesthetics, amplification and feedback, and compositional rigor has led one reviewer to call his solo recordings "exquisitely hostile".

In the past three years, Wooley has been gathering international acclaim for his idiosyncratic trumpet language. Time Out New York has called him "an iconoclastic trumpeter", and Downbeat's Jazz Musician of the Year, Dave Douglas has said, "Nate Wooley is one of the most interesting and unusual trumpet players living today, and that is without hyperbole". His work has been featured at the SWR JazzNow stage at Donaueschingen, the WRO Media Arts Biennial in Poland, Kongsberg, North Sea, Music Unlimited, and Copenhagen Jazz Festivals, and the New York New Darmstadt Festivals. In 2011 he was an artist in residence at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, NY and Cafe Oto in London, England. In 2013 he performed at the Walker Art Center as a featured solo artist.

Nate is the curator of the Database of Recorded American Music (www.dramonline.org) and the editor-in-chief of their online quarterly journal Sound American (www.soundamerican.org) both of which are dedicated to broadening the definition of American music through their online presence and the physical distribution of music through Sound American Records. He also runs Pleasure of the Text which releases music by composers of experimental music at the beginnings of their careers in rough and ready mediums."

"Mette Rasmussen is a Danish saxophone player based in Trondheim, Norway. She works in the field of improvised music, drawing from a wide range of influences, spanning free jazz to textural soundwork. Rasmussen works on exploring the natural rawness of her instrument - experimenting on what the saxophone is capable of in sound and expression, with and without preparations. Much in demand, she has performed with the likes of Alan Silva, Chris Corsano, Ståle Liavik Solberg, and with her Trio Riot group with Sam Andreae and David Meier."

"Born in Warwick, Rhode Island on September 22nd, 1964, Ken Vandermark began studying the tenor saxophone at the age of 16. Since graduating with a degree in Film and Communications from McGill University during the spring of 1986, his primary creative emphasis has been the exploration of contemporary music that deals directly with advanced methods of improvisation. In 1989, he moved to Chicago from Boston, and has worked continuously from the early 1990's onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America and Europe, recording in a large array of contexts, with many internationally renowned musicians (such as Fred Anderson, Ab Baars, Peter Brötzmann, Tim Daisy, Hamid Drake, Terrie Ex, Mats Gustafsson, Devin Hoff, Christof Kurzmann, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Joe McPhee, Paal Nilssen-Love, Paul Lytton, Andy Moor, Joe Morris, and Nate Wooley). His current activity includes work with Made To Break, The Resonance Ensemble, Side A, Lean Left, Fire Room, the DKV Trio, and duos with Paal Nilssen-Love and Tim Daisy; in addition, he is the music director of the experimental Pop band, The Margots. More than half of each year is spent touring in Europe, North America, and Japan, and his concerts and numerous recordings have been critically acclaimed both at home and abroad. In addition to the tenor sax, he also plays the bass and Bb clarinet, and baritone saxophone. In 1999 he was awarded the MacArthur prize for music."

"Jasper Stadhouders (Tilburg, the Netherlands, 1989) is a guitarist and bassist based in Amsterdam. He's performed music on stage since the age of 8. He is an active member of the international improvised music circuit. He is a co-founder of the bands Cactus Truck (with John Dikeman and Onno Govaert), Stadhouders/Govaert/De Joode Trio and two duos with percussionists Dag Erik Knedal Andersen and Nicolas Field. He is also part of such diverse bands as Spinifex and Lily's Déjà Vu, next to playing countless of ad hoc improv shows. Jasper also occasionally works in the fields of dance, theatre and contemporary composed music. He has played with Han Bennink, Ab Baars, Paal Nilssen-Love, Marshall Allen, Wolter Wierbos, Noel Redding, Ken Vandermark, Jim Black, Andrew D'Angelo, Terrie Ex, Andy Moor, Peter Evans, Frank Rosaly, Dave Rempis, Roy Campbell, Michael Moore, Jeb Bishop, Peter Jacquemyn, Wally Shoup, Ingrid Laubrock, Mars Williams, Michael Vatcher, Alan Wilkinson and many more. Jasper has performed extensively in Europe and the USA, as well as in India."

"Terrie Hessels, AKA Terrie Ex, is an improvising guitarist from the Netherlands. In addition to his work as an improviser, he's a founding member of the iconic Dutch punk band The Ex. Terrie founded the Terp label to document the work of Ethiopian musicians as well as his own improvising projects."

Born 1970 in Canada, Joe Williamson has toured the world as a bass player in various setting and He moved to Europe in 1992 and has lived in Amsterdam, Berlin and London, and Stockholm. Projects include The Inconvenience, Trapist, Alex Ward and The Dead Ends, Tobias Delius 4tet, Weird Weapons, the Duck Baker Trio, King of Herrings, The Green Valley Players, Booklet, The 7 Seas Orchestra,The Wardrobe Trio... Past and present collaborators include Duck Baker, Steve Beresford, &c.

"Elisabeth Harnik, free-lance composer and pianist, was born 1970 in Graz and lives in Gams (County of Styria/Austria). She studied classical piano and later - with Beat Furrer - composition at what is now the Univer sity of Music and Performing Arts, Graz.

The "repertoire" and it's extensions in composition and improvisation is her central focus. Harnik works within an electro-acoustic inspired sound-world, using unique preparations and extended techniques.

Performances include: Easterfestival Graz 2002, Hörfest Graz 2003/04/05, Styrian Chamber Music Festival 2003, Klangmühle Orth an der Donau 2005, Munich Ope ra Festival 2006, Mozart- Year Vienna 2006, Paul Hofhaimer Musiktage 2006, Composers' Forum Mittersill 2008, Haydn Year 2009, Festival 4020 Linz 2009, Sou ndings Festival London 2010, Opera Graz, Musikprotokoll/Steirischer Herbst 2011, E_MAY Festival Vienna 2011/2012, Klangspuren Schwaz 2012, Transart Festiv al Bozen 2012, Wien Modern 2013, Estonian Harpsichord Society Festival 2014, A udio ArtFestival Pula 2014 a.o.

She has worked with renowned artists and ensembles such as the Ensemble Zeitfluss Graz, the Ensemble 09 Linz, the Ensemble MusikFabri kSüd, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Klangforum Vienna, the Ensemb le "die reihe" Vienna, the Ensemble Kontrapunkte Vienna, the ensemble Reconsil Vienna, the Ensemble PHACE Vienna, the Ensemble Platypus Vienna, the Hay dn-Trio-Eisenstadt, the Trio AMOS Vienna, the Trio EIS Vienna, the Thürmchen Ens emble Cologne, the Fidelio Trio London, the Cantus Ensemble Zagreb, the Ensemble mise-en New York and various national and international soloists.

She received a great number of rewards and prizes, most recently she was Artist in Residence at the OMI International Arts Center New York 2010 and Composer in Residence 2013 at the IZZM in Ossiach/Austria. In addition to her work as composer she appears as improvisator at various national and international festivals such as the V:NM-Festival, the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon, the Nickelsdorfer Konfrontationen, the Artacts Festival St. Johann, the Music Unlimited Festival Wels, the Soundgrube Vienna, the Comprovise Festival Cologne, the Beethoven Fest Bonn, the A L'ARME! Festival Ber lin, the Jazz & More Festival Sibiu, the Alpenglow Festival London, the All Ears Festival Oslo, the Umbrella Music Festival Chicago, the Okka Fest Milwaukee, the Musi cacoustica Beijing, the SoundOut Festival Canberra/AUS a.o."

"Steve Heather (Composer/Performer/Musician) is a freelance musician (drums, percussion, electronics) and composer, performance and installation maker based in Berlin. Born in Melbourne and studied percussion/improvisation at the Victoria College of the Arts and performance art at Das Arts/Amsterdam.

Steve Heather's current music projects/bands vary from avant guard, free jazz to noise, drone rock and prog fitness disco include: STIFF LEATHER, TUB, NEU TRAINERS, THE STILL, BOOKLET, MRS CONCEPTION, RAFT, SHELTER, THE PEELED EYE and ASHES. Steve was the co founder of the Amsterdam based electo acoustic music series, Kraak Geluiden and is also is the co-founder of the new media/ performance group SXS ENTERPRISE with Siegmar Zacharias and Xander De Boer.

As sound designer, composer and performer, Steve Heather works regularly in the fields of dance, theatre, film new media, performance and has worked with The Netherlands Dance Theatre, Sandra Parker Dance, Scapino Ballet, Ivana Müller, United Sorry and Dansgroep Amsterdam.

He performs regularly at European Festivals with performances, among others, at Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin) Haus Der Berliner Festspiele (Berlin), BRUT (Vienna), Grand Theatre (Gronigen), Sophiensaele (Berlin) and Volksbuhne (Berlin). Steve Heather has undertaken numerous artistic residencies in institutes such as Les Bains (Brussels), sophiensaele (Berlin), Steim (Amsterdam), STUK (Leuven), Grand Theatre (Gronigen), Dance House (Melbourne)."

"Didi Kern, the human rhythm machine of Bulbul, Broken Heart Collector, Fuckhead, Wipeout, Die MŠuse, Wenzl Dnatek (among others), feels at home in almost any genre: noise, rock, techno, free jazz - you name it."

"Dieb13 is the performing name of Dieter Kovačič, a Viennese-based avant-garde musician. He has also performed under the names Takeshi Fumimoto, Echelon, Dieter Bohlen, and dieb14. After appearing on several compilations documenting the burgeoning Viennese avant-garde scene of the late 1990s, he released his first solo album in 2000. He has gone on to perform in a number of collaborations with other notable performers, including Burkhard Stangl, erikm, Mats Gustafsson and the John Butcher Group."