"Joost Buis is an improvising musician and composer from Amsterdam. He plays trombone and lap steel guitar."

"Born as Luc Klaasen in 1958 in Holland. After being a taxi-driver in Amsterdam he started his activities as musician (The Ex), making films (Mal Films) and was also one of the founders of the CD distribution and production company 'Konkurrent Onafhankelijk Muziekbedrijf BV'. In 2015 he stopped with his work @ Konkurrent.

For many years he was one of the driving forces behind the band THE EX.The Ex received large international recognition for there unconventional and fresh interpretation of music and its different styles, their consistent political attitude, their 'organic way' of making music and the fact they kept their independancy from the big commercial musicbusiness. After they won the national dutch pop-price 'BV POP' price in 1991 this appreciation only got bigger.

The Ex always worked with a diverge variety of artists and musicians like Han Bennink, Ab Baars, american avantgarde cellist Tom Cora (The Ex & Tom Cora 1991-1995), kurdish singer Brader, the Malian group Lanaya and toured with popgroups like Sonic Youth, Shellac, Chumbawamba, Tortoise & Fugazi.

One of his last projects within The Ex was the spectacular orchestra 'EX ORKEST': a 20 piece bigband with an enormous sound, dynamics and energy. Lyrics were written by the dutch writer and ex-soccer player Jan Mulder (Ajax, Anderlecht)."

"Pepe Garcia: Sound researcher, music creator. Percussion teacher @Royal Conservatoire The Hague. Artistic coordinator @slagwerkdenhaag www.slagwerkdenhaag.nl"

"My story is quite simple, I was living in São Paulo (Brazil) a big city with 21.000.000 people and a incredible concrete jungle and it happen to be playing music too, after many years playing Brazilian music, free improvisation started to take place in my music.

Waking up and sleeping with this constant noise that this huge city makes it was inevitable to not have it on my music. As any 3rd world citizen I had to improvise every day and that is what happen to my "forró" (Brasilian music from the north east), became more and more full of noises and freer in the form and content.

So in 2005 after recording "Abaetetuba" and "Contra Mão" I thought that it was time to leave São Paulo and meet some other improvisers around the world. Now I am based in Amsterdam but have been for two years in London where I spent most of my time making music with some amazing musicians as Marcio Mattos, Veryan Weston, John Edwards, Steve Noble, Mark Sanders and also was part of the London Improvisers Orchestra together with Lol Coxhill and Evan Parker between other great musicians from the London free improv scene, that was to me a great school.

This orchestra has inspired me to start the Royal Improvisers Orchestra (RIO) in Holland and it has been playing since 2006, with 20 musicians from all over the world and from completely individual angels of music with musicians from Baroque to Punk Noise but with the same passion for the improvisation.

Here in Holland, beside my fix groups RIO, Caetitu, Abaetetuba and EkE, I have also been playing with some great musicians that I have learned a lot from as Han Bennink, Michael Vatcher, Luc Ex, Marcos Baggiani, Ab Baars, Cor Fuhler and other ZAAL100 (our free improv place in Amsterdam) friends."

"Born in 1950, and moved from Cornwall to London in 1972 and began playing as a freelance jazz pianist as well as developing as an improviser at Little Theatre Club.


1975-85: Residency & fellowship for Digswell Arts Trust (Hertfordshire). Activities included:

Collaborations with visual artists (potter-Elizabeth Fritsch and fine artist Steve Cochrane).
Work on written theoretical material, commissioned by The Digswell Arts Trust.
Co-ordinating music workshops, supported by Eastern Arts Association.
Co-founded and composed for young local group - Stinky Winkles, voted 'Young Musician of 1979' by Greater London Arts Association and won first prizes in France, Spain and Poland.
Collaborations with Lol Coxhill, music for Derek Jarman Film. First released recordings.

Throughout 1980s and early 90s worked with Eddie PrŽvost Quartet, Trevor Watts' MoirŽ Music and Lol Coxhill and Phil Minton. Major festivals have included Zurich, Berlin, Nickelsdorf, Karlsruhr, Warsaw, Wroclaw, San Sebastian, Bombay, Vancouver, Nancy, Aukland, Nevers, Washington, Lille, Houston, Le Mans, Strasbourg, Bologna and Victoriaville.

Ensemble projects with Minton:

Duo - Ways, Ways Past, and....Past - diverse songs, originals & improvisation structures.
Songs from a Prison Diary - French commission for 25 singers with poems by Ho Chi Minh.
Naming the Animals -a quartet with Lianne Carol and Ian Shaw, words by Adrian Mitchell.
Mouthfull of ecstasy - with John Butcher, Roger Turner, texts from Joyce's Finnegans wake.
Makhno - for chamber choir commissioned by Taktlos Festival 1997.
4Walls - a quartet with songs and improvisations with Luc Ex and Michael Vatcher.


Other recent duo collaborations with:

Trevor Watts - improvisations with a feeling of form, where rhythm and melody sit comfortably with more abstract moments. A major current project.
Caroline Kraabel - duets that explore acoustic phenomena related to two instruments and how these sounds interact in specific acoustic spaces.
Jon Rose - improvisations using different acoustic keyboards and violins with selected tunings derived from science, history and the imagination.
Hugh Metcalfe - Films by Hugh, images of objects, animals, humans, holidays, journeys, unfold, transform, collide and provide the basis for accompanying duet improvisations.


Local activities:

(1995-6) playing in rhythm section for 'Changes' jazz club in North London with British jazz artists.
Awarded A4E National Lottery support to give series of workshops/concerts with John Edwards & Mark Sanders titled 'Playing Together' in East Anglia (1998).

Helped coordinate and arrange the Lindsay Cooper Song Project (1999). European festivals - Taktlos (Zurich), Angelica (Bologna, commissioned arrangement of "Oh Moscow" for orchestra), Moers (Germany) and Roccella Jonica (Italy)"

"Nina Hitz was born in Switzerland and is currently living in The Netherlands. She finished her graduate studies in Baroque cello at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.

A very active, questing spirit who constantly seeks the unknown in life and in music, in addition to baroque music, Hitz is active with experimental music, improvisation and theatrical performances.

She is a member of Belfontis, with fortepiano player Kaoru Iwamura. The trio specialises in early romantic music. She also performs with Traces and Resonances, with dancer Sato Endo, and Jargon (led byMaurice Horsthuis).

She has played in theater- and dance productions of Orkater, Olivier Provily, Het Barre Land, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, les Ballets C de la B, Opera2Day and piano quintet SOUNDS."