Phil Zampino is the founder and operator of Squidco, an independent music retail, distribution, and curatorial platform specializing in experimental, improvised, avant, and underground music. He is also a musician himself, leading the long-running project CHANGES TO blind, and integrates his interests in computer technology, literature, and art into his creative life.

Born in West Point, New York (his father was in a military band), Zampino grew up in the upstate New York Syracuse area, later living in Schenectady and then spending many years in Manhattan (Lower Manhattan, then Washington Heights) before relocating to Wilmington, North Carolina near Greenfield Lake.

In that period in New York he immersed himself in a wide range of musical styles, from improvised music and downtown experimental scenes (Zorn, Laswell, "No Safety," etc.) to avant-progressive and global/ethnic forms.

Zampino also has a strong technical side: he was a mainframe systems and database programmers, has long used Apple Macintosh systems, worked as a web contractor and FileMaker database developer, and maintains an active involvement in computing and online systems alongside his musical work.

His photographic practice is another major outlet: he describes his driving motivation as a love of and fascination with the natural world, aiming to capture light, landscapes, wildlife, and ephemeral moments in nature - both as a way to slow down and "refocus scattered senses," and as an aesthetic complement to his musical life.

"Chester Hawkins (Washington DC) has performed a wide range of experimental music since 1985. His most well-known project was BLUE SAUSAGE INFANT, being an exercise in musique concrète and loop-collage, which later expanded to embrace drone, krautrock, psychedelia, noise, and sonically intense live performances. After 28 years, the BSI project was retired and new works continue under his own name, crafting dynamic adventures in sound with a more focused and wholly electronic approach.

Hawkins has released music under the imprints Alrealon Musique, Zeromoon, and his own Intangible Arts. Past collaborators include Insect Factory, Violet, Tag Cloud, Haunted Toilet, Changes to Blind, New Carrollton, Lida Husik, and Stolen Government Binder Clip."

"The tuba player and composer Robin Hayward was born in Brighton, England in 1969. He studied classical music at the University of Manchester and tuba at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he graduated in 1991. In following years he was active in the improvised and experimental music scenes in Manchester and London. Since 1998 he has been based in Berlin.

He has introduced revolutionary playing techniques to brass instruments, initially through the discovery of the 'noise-valve' in 1996, and later through the development of the first fully microtonal tuba in 2009. In 2012 he invented the Hayward Tuning Vine, partly out of a desire to visualise the harmonic space implicit within the microtonal tuba. In 2005 he founded the ensemble Zinc & Copper to explore brass chamber music from an experimental music perspective.

Robin Hayward has toured extensively both solo and in collaboration, and been featured in such festivals as Maerzmusik, Fri Resonans, Donaueschingen, TRANSIT festival, Ghent Festival of Flanders, Ostrava New Music Days, Sound Symposium, Kieler Tage für Neue Musik and Wien Modern. Collaborations include such musicians as Charles Curtis and Roberto Fabbriciani, along with composers such as Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier and Eliane Radigue. His approach to the tuba has been documented in the solo releases Valve Division, States of Rushing, Nouveau Saxhorn Nouveau Basse and Rubble Master, along with numerous collaborative releases, such as with the microtonal tuba trio Microtub and the tuba and double bass duo Reidemeister Move. He has lectured at such institutions as Stuttgart Musikhochschule, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, UDK Berlin, Dartmouth College and Wesleyan University. He has also worked regularly with such orchestras as the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and from 2002 to 2012 was a member of the new music ensemble KNM Berlin.

In 2012 the International Tuba and Euphonium Association (ITEA) presented him with the Clifford Bevan Award for Excellence in Research for his 2011 article on the history and development of the microtonal tuba. In 2016 he received the ITEA's Jim and Jamie Self Creative Award for his work with the microtonal tuba and Hayward Tuning Vine."

"Tenor saxophonist-Irvin Pierce [...] is often compared to John Coltrane. He made his recording debut at the age of 15 on "The Drive" a CD produced by his mentor Robert Irving III for the Jazz Links Ensemble on the Jazz Institute of Chicago label. Irving says, "At that age one could hear the sound of a promising young kid. Today, in just five-years, I hear a young master soloist." Irvin recently toured in France with Rob Mazurek's Third Coast Ensemble."