"Frode Gjerstad was born in Stavanger, Norway, 24-03-1948. He started trying to play improvised music as a trumpeter in 1968. When he moved to Lund in Sweden (1971 to 1975) he got a chance to meet, talk and play with musicians interested in this music. He had at that time started playing tenor saxophone (1969).

After he came back to Stavanger in 1975 he started collaborating with keyboardist Eivin One Pedersen. Together, they explored many different aspects of improvised music, as a duo or with others, but it was not until 1981, when they first played with John Stevens, that he had a real chance to feel what a dedicated musicians can do to the music-making.

At the early stage of his career, he choose mainly to play with international musicians because there was no tradition in Norway for the free music. However, after the club Blå opened in Oslo in 1996, a good number of younger musicians are now picking up on the music.

His relationship with British drummer, John Stevens which started in -81 and lasted up until his death in -94, was of great importance both musically as well as on a personal level. Through Stevens, he was introduced to some of the finest British improvisers and got to know their way of playing. Together, they led the trio "Detail" starting with Johnny Dyani on bass. And after Johnny died in -86, with Kent Carter.

He has also been active, running a larger group of mostly Norwegian musicians, the Circulasione Totale Orchestra. He started the group using electric instruments and modern rock-oriented rhythms. He has used the band to present his own compositions as well as a workshop and a place for young people to get to know free music. The band presented a commissioned work at the Molde Festival in -89 with a 13 man band combining free improvisations, compositions as well as rapping and scratching.(Three horns, three bassists, three drummers, accordeon, guitar a rapper and a DJ). The Circulasione Totale Orchestra is a powerful ever-changing band.

But it´s not easy to keep such a big group together. In 1998 he decided to keep the core of the band which at that time was Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and Øyvind Storesund on bass and try to develop that sound. It became Frode Gjerstad Trio. So far the trio has toured Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Polen, Italy, Austria, Portugal, England, Canada and the United States.

He has received several grants from various foundations and has been very active in the Norwegian Jazzmusicians Federation as well as in the committee for the Norwegian Contemporary Music Federation. Voted Jazz Musician of the Year in Norway, 1997. Part of the price was a concert where he could freely choose which musicians to use. This was the first meeting with Hamid Drake and William Parker. The concert became a tour of Scandinavia in -97 and the US in 2000.

US Pianist Borah Bergman has also been important to Frode. They first met in -94 and have played as a duo and also as trio with Evan Parker and later Peter Brøtzmann. Borah has been a great inspiration and a challenge over the years!

English bassist Nicholas Stephens first played with Frode in 1984. He played electric bass at the time, but it was not until after John Stevens died in 1994 that they started working together as "Calling Signals". First with a tour of England in 1995 with Paul Rutherford and Terje Isungset. And in 1996 with Louis Moholo and Danish guitarist, Hasse Poulsen. The latest version of the group has been with accordionist Eivin One Pederesen and Paal Nilssen-Love or Tony Marsh on drums. Frode also met and worked with US percussionist Kevin Norton in 2004 and they have found a common ground. They have a trio with Nicholas Stephens: Instinctual Eye.

Electronic music started to make an impact when he met Lasse Marhaug. They have played some concerts together and made some recordings. Lasses sounds have opened up a whole new territory of possibilities and came at a time when Frode started playing clarinets. A very fruitful combination!

Another side of the electronic thing was the group Ultralyd which was Frodes idea: to bring in a loud powerful electric bass with drums, guitar and reeds. After about a year, he left the band because the sound level was unbearable for the old man.! And he left it to the youngsters to decide how loud the band should be. Still, he has continued playing with Morten, Anders and Kjetil in other projects."

"Itzam Cano (born in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican jazz double bassist.

He studied ethnomusicology at the Escuela Nacional de Música from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). He studied electric bass and contrabass and the development of improvisation, jazz theory, and harmony.

In late 2005, he joined free jazz ensemble Zero Point. In September 2006, Zero Point participated in the Japanese New Music Festival (Tatsuya Yoshida, Makoto Kawabata y Atsushi Tsuyama), at Multiforo Alicia in Mexico City. By 2007, Zero Point released its first digital album for Ayler Records.

He has worked with Elliot Levin, Marco Eneidi, Dennis, Stefan y Aarón Gonzales, Dave Dove, Shelley Hirsch, Scott Forrey, Milo Tamez, Tom Corona, Lawrence Williams, and Generación Espontánea.

Since 2004 he has performed at the Ollin Jazz Tlalpan Internacional, Festival de Improvisación Libre, Free Jazz y Noise "Cha'ak'ab Paaxil" (with sede in Mérida, Yucatán), Festival Internacional de las Americas in La Habana, Cúba and in festivals in cities like Puebla, Guadalajara, and Zacatecas.

He has been a member of the bands Antimateria, Zero Point, Claude Lawrence trío and has been part of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puebla and the Orquesta de Percutoris from the Escuela Nacional de Música at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (ENM-UNAM)."

"Originally from Zermatt in the canton Valais, Switzerland. At an early age, he was initiated into free jazz by his father, the architect Peter Lauber, listening to improvisations by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Gato Barbieri and Albert Ayler. During elementary school he studied piano for a few years. In 1989 he began to learn drums with his first teacher Reinhard Fürbringer until 1994.

From 1993 to 1997, he studied at the Musikhochschule Luzern, Abteilung Jazz (School of Jazz in Lucerne) with Fabian Kuratli. Attend master classes with Christy Doran and Peter Kowald. Later, he relocated to the city of Zürich to study with Pierre Favre from 1997 to 1999 who was his last teacher. In 2000, he made a trip to various cities and towns in Mexico. Shortly after, he returned to Zürich, at which time he decided to leave Europe and settle on the outskirts of Tepoztlán, making Mexico his home as of 2001.

SuckySucky BoomBoom, is the first ensemble he formed in 2003, accompanied by the German programmer-musician, Pit Noack, the Japanese bassist Kei Onishi and the Mexican singer Jhony of the gore-grind ensemble Oxidised Razor.

Julio Clavijo (Mandorla), joins SuckySucky BoomBoom, when Pit Noack returns to Germany. The ensemble performed twice at the Massacre Fest in Mexico City and at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) - Xochimilco.

In December 2003, Germán Bringas and Gabriel Lauber met and began to work together. For the year 2004, they organize an ensemble in the company of Julio Clavijo: Zero Point. For the following year, the trio performed at the Café Jazzorca, Hexen Café, the Tlalpan Jazz Festival, the Museum of Mexico City, the Anahuacalli Museum, Multiforo Alicia, among others. In addition to recording two independent productions released under Lauber's record label: Dimensional Recordings. In the fall of 2005, Julio Clavijo decided to venture into other projects. That's when the double bass player Itzam Canois invited to collaborate with Zero Point. Also this year, Gabriel Lauber formed Dimensional Recordings and Dimensional Productions, during which time he met and collaborated with Remi Álvarez in some ensembles. The year 2006 is decisive for the direction that Zero Point would take, since in September they recorded what would be their first virtual album (DL-CD Download Only Release) at Ayler Records, a Swedish company specializing in free jazz in addition to participating in the Japanese New Music. Festival (Tatsuya Yoshida, Makoto Kawabata and Atsushi Tsuyama), organized by Kei Onishi, the Embassy of Japan in Mexico, Jazzorca Records and Dimensional Productions. Also in 2006, he formed together with Remi Álvarez and Itzam Cano, Antimatter. This same year he joined one more ensemble, Onslaught.

Currently it is part of the assemblies: Álvarez - Lauber Duo, Antimatter, Bringas - Lauber Duo & Zero Point. He has worked live with musicians such as Dennis, Stefan and Aarón González, Dave Dove, Uros Nedeljkovic, Hermann Bühler, Scott & Steven Forrey, Marcos Miranda, Martin High De Prime, Marco Eneidi, Mauricio Sotelo, Ángelo Moroni, Juan Pablo Villa, Hernan Hecht, Aarón Cruz, Carlos Alegre, among others."