"Lene Grenager studied composition and the cello at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo under Aage Kvalbein (cello), Olav Anton Thommessen and Alfred Janson (composition). She has also attended seminars and lectures with the following composers: Louis Andriessen, Gerard Grisey, George Benjamin, Brian Ferneyhough, Magnus Lindberg, Philip Manoury, Iannis Xenakis, Tristan Murail, Klas Torstensson, Alejandro Vinao, Bent Sørensen, James Dillon, Trevor Wishart and Judith Weir.

Currently (2009-2013) she holds a five year work grant from the Norwegian State, and the same institution awarded her a three year work grant (2002-2004) for Young Artists. She has also been awarded grants from Fegerstens Legat, Komponistenes vederlagsfond and TONO. In 2002 she was awarded the Lindeman Prize for young composers. From 1999 till 2001 she held a scholarship position in composition at Agder University College. From 1998 she is a member of the Norwegian Society of Composers.

Grenager works both as composer and musician. She has been working professionally since 1995 with commissions from a.o. Cikada, Ensemble Ernst, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Bodø Sinfonietta, Nordic Music Days, Fylkingen and Affinis ensemble. She has had portrait concerts at the festivals Ultima, Borealis and Ilios and her works has been performed at festivals and concerts all over Europe. She finds it important that the musicians own voices and choices are reflected in the performances of her works but simultaneously that the core of the work is clearly defined from her hand. This has resulted in a great variety of notational techniques and richness in detail in the different scores. Grenager"s work as performing improvisational musician has also influenced her compositions. She tours extensively all over the world with the improvisation bandsSPUNK, Lemur and with Sofia Jernberg. She has also cooperated closely with dancers, visual artists and actors.

Grenager participates on some 20 recordings as composer, musician and producer a.o. "Affinis-suite" (+3db), "Slåtter, slag og slark" (Euridice) og "Systema naturae" (Øra), and with SPUNK (Rune Grammofon), Lemur (+3db) og Jernberg/Grenager (olofbright)."

"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."

"Guro Skumsnes Moe (born 1983 in Hedemark, Norway) is a Norwegian Upright bass player, composer and singer. Dance, improvisation, rock, jazz and noise music, are all elements that are important to her expression.

Moe is a bassist and vocalist that has managed to make her mark on the Norwegian music scenes, both on and off stage. She has her musical background from the Music conservatory in Kristiansand and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, where she graduated 2007, she has distinguished herself as an active performer with wide field of interest on the Oslo's jazz and free impro music scene recent years. She has hosted jam sessions on "Belleville", runs the ÇMumle Vind KompaniÈ together with Yngvild Aspelid, play traditional music together with her sisters Eline and Jenny.

On her debut solo album It Pictures (2011) she collaborates in trio with drummer Sveinar Hoff and guitarist HŒvard Skaset. Kim-Erik Pedersen, Kjetil M¿ster, Lasse Marhaug also appears on selected tunes. The second album Oslo Janus (2013) is a true solo five pieces album. The third album 3 (2014) she again collaborates with HŒvard Skaset, but this time drummer Joakim Heib¿ replaces Sveinar Hoff."

"Hild Sofie Tafjord has re-written the sonic possibilities of the French Horn and established herself as one of Norway's most arresting musicians. Pushing the limits of her instrument for years, whether acoustically or electronically, she has made her mark as composer, performer and improvisor. Her signature is present in her group playing in SPUNK and LEMUR, Zeitkratzer but takes front row in her solo work.

Tafjord is active as a solo performer and in groups like SPUNK, Lemur, Agrare, Zeitkratzer Ensemble, Trinacria, Phantom Orchard Orchestra a.o. She has a broad range as an artist and has made music for dance, film, theater, installations and sculptures. She has also worked with performances, given workshops and site specific concerts. She has played and collaborated with numerous mucisians and artists in Europe, Amerika, Canada and Asia, like Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Evan Parker, Matmos, Wolf Eyes a.o. Hild Sofie participates on more than 40 releases, and her first solo album Kama is out on Picadisk."

"The Norwegian guitarist Håvard Skaset has been transcending musical borders in countless collaborations spanning from noise, sound based improv to noise rock. A dedicated artist from the Norwegian experimental music scene, whose work is a mix between raw primal sounds and the use of instrumental skills rather than effects.

Apart from his solo work, Skaset's main focus is the acoustic noise group SULT and the noise rock band MoE.The Norwegian trio is known for mixing minimalistic compositions with alternative and experimental approaches that fail to fit in the rock genre. Existing since 2008, MoE has released numerous 7"s and 12"s as well as two albums, before Fysisk Format got the chance to release their third album, "3". "3" was recorded and mixed in two days in Norway's well renown Athletic Sound Studio and features 7 tracks of raw and to-the-point music inspired by the band's far stretching tours through Mexico, Japan, South East Asia, Europe. Over the years MoE have collaborated with musicians and bands such as Okkyung Lee, John Hegre, The Observatory, Arabrot and Lasse Marhaug who, with his many talents, also did the artwork for the album. Loud and violent, they molest their instruments and bring the listener close to a healthy insanity.

His long-term connection to California has resulted in several releases and US tours with groups like Bay/Oslo Mirror Trio and SULT. Sult is an acoustic noise ensemble with members from Oslo and the Bay Area. Their music reflects the noise genre's concern with layers of sonic texture, though completely performed on acoustic instruments. Individual sounds run precariously aside one another as independent streams, and alternately blur into a unified mass.

[...]

Håvard Skaset's discography contains electric as well as acoustic releases with musicians such as Frode Gjerstad, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Guro Skumsnes Moe and Lene Grenager. Skaset has also collaborated with artists like Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Maja Ratkje, Okkyung Lee, Lasse Marhaug and Jacob Felix Heule. In addition to running the label Conrad Sound, Skaset curates Høyt&Lavt, a festival for borderless music in Oslo."

"Borre Molstad is a tuba player, a member of Cabinet Trio, Circulasione Totale Orchestra, and Paal Nilssen-Love's Large Unit."