"John Dikeman was born in Nebraska in 1983 and grew up in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Thanks to the extreme isolation of his hometown, he spent most of his free time practicing and studying music. He quickly discovered the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, and Albert Ayler and instantly connected to the unmatched expressive power of free jazz. John was very fortunate to meet and collaborate with many excellent improvisers at a rather early age. Dikeman started performing professionally at the age of 16 after meeting New Mexican guitarist Stefan Dill who became a mentor for John. Stefan also introduced Dikeman to Jack Wright who was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time. Jack would prove to be one of John's biggest influences and a long time collaborator (as well as short term landlord). John also spent a summer in Arkansas where he was able to woodshed and perform with saxophonist Keefe Jackson and bassist Jon Barrios.

Dikeman left Wyoming in 1999 to study saxophone and composition at the Interlochen Arts Academy and then briefly at Bennington College where he attended courses with drumming legend Milford Graves and was also able to collaborate regularly with drummer Ben Hall. John also studied privately with Joe Maneri during this period.

John then moved to New York City for one year where he worked as a satellite dish technician while performing as much as possible. After NYC, John moved to Philadelphia. Frequent collaborators of this time included Daniel Carter, Lukas Ligeti, and Ty Cumbie in The Color Now Band, Nate Wooley, Mike Pride, Jonathan Vincent, Jack Wright, Toshi Makihara, Jon Barrios, Kurt Heyl, Zack Fuller, Reuben Radding, Ava Mendoza, Raed Yassin, Daniel Carter, Jonathan Fretheim, Mike Barker and many others.

In 2004, Dikeman moved to Cairo, Egypt. In the three years he was there, he worked regularly as a performer, studio musician, and teacher. He performed as a soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, played and traveled throughout North Africa with Nubian pop star Mohamed Mounir, led his own jazz bands which performed weekly in downtown Cairo, performed and recorded with DJ Haze, played countless weddings and party's with The Riff Band, and served as the saxophonist in most Egyptian bands that needed one. He also performed at the Lebanese improvised music festival, Irtijal, in 2005 and 2006.

John moved to Amsterdam in December of 2007, after a brief stay in Budapest, Hungary. Since arriving in Amsterdam, John has jumped at the chance to re-enter the world of improvised music. John performs regularly in the Netherlands in venues including the Bimhuis, Paard van Troje, Café Wilhelmina, Paradox, Lindenberg, OT301, etc... John is also a curator for the OT301 New Music and Dance Program as well as the Tabula Rasa series at the Maarten Luther Kerk. Since moving to Amsterdam John has performed with Joe McPhee, Han Bennink, Andy Moor, Terrie Ex, Roy Campbell, Hilliard Greene, Mike Reed, Jeb Bishop, Ab Baars, Nate McBride, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Vatcher, Jason Roebke, Wilbert De Joode, Dirk Bruinsma, Jasper Stadhouders, Onno Govaert, Andrea Taeggi, Frank Rosaly, Klaus Kugel, Yedo Gibson, Renato Ferreira, Raoul van der Weide, Eric Boeren, Viljam Nybacka, Wim Jenssen, Oscar Jan Hoogland, Ivo Bol, Alfredo Genovesi, Meinrad Kneer, Gerri Jager, Stevko Busch, and numerous other musicians from the Dutch and international improvisation scene."

"Strøm grew up on an island in the north-west of Norway. Influenced u. A. By Gary Peacock and Frode Gjerstad , with the first shots were (East of the West, 2011), he plays in the Norwegian free jazz scene with Paal Nilssen-Loves Group Large Unit, Petter Wettre and Mats Gustafsson Nu Ensemble, also with musicians like Mats Äleklint , John Dikeman , Martin Kitchen , Thomas Johansson and Tollef Østvang in formations such as SAKA Trio, Universal Indians, All Included and Friends & Neighbors. 2013, it issued a solo album Jøa.

"Tollef Østvang (b. 1985 in Røros), is a norwegian drummer/improviser currently living in Trondheim. He´s mostly dedicated to free jazz and other forms of improvised music. Except from playing with his main projects, he have also performed with notable improvisers such as Joe McPhee, Ab Baars, Ig Hennemann, Tobias Delius, Wolter Wierbos, Eric Boeren, Michael Moore, Wilbert de Joode, Dave Rempis, Lasse Marhaug, Josh Berman, Keefe Jackson and Jaap Blonk."

"Joe McPhee, born November 3,1939 in Miami, Florida, USA, is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, conceptualist and theoretician. He began playing the trumpet at age eight, taught by his father, himself a trumpet player. He continued on that instrument through his formative school years and later in a U.S. Army band stationed in Germany, at which time he was introduced to performing traditional jazz. Clifford Thornton's Freedom and Unity, released in 1969 on the Third World label, is the first recording on which he appears as a side man. In 1968, inspired by the music of Albert Ayler, he took up the saxophone and began an active involvement in both acoustic and electronic music.

His first recordings as leader appeared on the CJ Records label, founded in 1969 by painter Craig Johnson. These include Underground Railroad by the Joe McPhee Quartet (1969), Nation Time (1970), Trinity (1971) and Pieces of Light (1974). In 1975, Swiss entrepreneur Werner X. Uehlinger release Black Magic Man by McPhee, on what was to become Hat Hut Records.

In 1981, he met composer, accordionist, performer, and educator Pauline Oliveros, whose theories of "deep listening" strengthened his interests in extended instrumental and electronic techniques. he also discovered Edward de Bono's book Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity, which presents concepts for solving problems by "disrupting an apparent sequence and arriving at the solution from another angle." de Bono's theories inspired McPhee to apply this "sideways thinking" to his own work in creative improvisation, resulting in the concept of "Po Music." McPhee describes "Po Music" as a "process of provocation" (Po is a language indicator to show that provocation is being used) to "move from one fixed set of ideas in an attempt to discover new ones." He concludes, "It is a Positive, Possible, Poetic Hypothesis." The results of this application of Po principles to creative improvisation can be heard on several Hat Art recordings, including Topology, Linear B, and Oleo & a Future Retrospective.

In 1997, McPhee discovered two like-minded improvisers in bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen. The trio premiered at the Vision Jazz Festival in 1998 but the concert went unnoticed by the press. McPhee, Duval, and Rosen therefore decided that an apt title for the group would be Trio X. In 2004 he created Survival Unit III with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Michael Zerang to expand his musical horizons and with a career spanning nearly 50 years and over 100 recordings, he continues to tour internationally, forge new connections while reaching for music's outer limits."