"Agustí Fernández (Palma de Mallorca, 1954), with a perfectly based career and a well-deserved international reputation, is one of the Spanish musicians of major international projection and a world reference in the field of improvised music. Fernández has worked with famous musicians of the free improvisation scene like Peter Kowald, Derek Bailey, Butch Morris, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Mats Gustafsson, Joel Ryan and Peter Evans a.m.o. He is a member of the Blue Shroud Band, Mats Gustafsson NU Ensemble and Barry Guy New Orquestra. Up to the current date he has published more than 80 CD's

He has also worked with the recognised composer of contemporary music Héctor Parra, who composed in collaboration with the pianist FREC, a solo for expanded piano. FREC has been premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2013 with the collaboration of the video artist Lucas Caraba. He has conducted various improvised music ensembles like Ad Libitum Ensemble (Varsaw), Free Art Ensemble (Barcelona), Ansambl Studio 6 (Lujbljana) Orquesta FOCO (Madrid), Entenguerengue (Jérez de la Frontera), Impromtu Ensemble (Valencia), etc.

Along his professional life Agustí Fernández has received much recognition. His solo for piano "Mutza" presented in New York in 2007 was distinguished by the New York magazine AllAboutJazz as one of 10 best concerts from that year. The CD "Un llamp que no s'acaba mai" on PSI (Agustí Fernández, John Edwards and Mark Sanders) has been distinguished by Allaboutjazz as one of the best 10 cd's in 2009; the CD "Aurora" on Maya Recordings (Agustí Fernandez, Barry Guy and Ramón López) was selected by Cuadernos de Jazz magazine as the best CD in 2007, by the Jaç magazine as the best fourth disc of the history of the Catalan jazz and it was Disc d'émoi (February, 2007) for the French Jazz Magazine. The "Agustí Fernández Aurora Trio" received the second prize at the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2012 celebrated in Münich, Germany. In 2000 he received the Festival Altaveu Award, Sant Boi de Llobregat (Catalonia). In 2001 he received the FAD - Sebastià Guasch Award, Barcelona (Cataluña) with Andrés Corchero por el or the performance "A modo de esperanza". In 2011 Agustí Fernández was the main character of the documentary film "Los dedos huéspedes" by Lucas Caraba, which has been screened in several international festivals of documentary. In 2014 the Ad Libitum Festival (Warsaw) dedicated a monographic edition to celebrate Fernández's 60th Birthday.

He's professor of improvised music at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He's developing an important teaching activity in the field of improvised music and, among other, he has been teaching in IRCAM in Paris, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre de Tallin, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Holland), the Conservatory in Arhem (Holland), the Taller de Músicos in Gijón (Spain), the Taller de Músics in Barcelona (Spain) and the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Salamanca (Spain)."

"Quite simply, Wacław Zimpel is one of the most original and unique talents to have emerged from Poland this side of the Millennium. A multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer of rare distinction, music has flowed through and from him since an early age. Inspired as much by jazz as he is by electronics, minimalism and roots music from across the world, Wacław Zimpel doesn't so much blur boundaries as eradicate them altogether to create a whole new musical language.

Born and raised in Poznań, his earliest musical memories are of his father playing the piano. Taking up the violin at the age of six, Wacław Zimpel cast aside the frustrations of formal music lessons by finding salvation in jazz, the harmonica and a burning desire to improvise.

His mastery of woodwind instrumentation including the clarinet and the khaen - a proto-harmonica from Laos - has reached world-class levels. A naturally curious musician who refuses to be boxed in, Wacław Zimpel has also applied the endless possibilities of electronics and loops to his oeuvre and, as displayed by his growing catalogue of music, is signposting the way for future generations.

His solo work includes the stunning and critically acclaimed album 'Lines'. Described by The Quietus as "a spectacular statement", the album found Wacław Zimpel joining an impressive lineage that comprises not only pioneers such as Terry Riley and LaMonte Young, but also jazz musicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman.

Wacław Zimpel has also made an indelible mark as a collaborator. His Saagara project has seen him successfully bring together the seemingly disparate disciplines of western jazz and Indian raga music across two stunning albums, the eponymous debut and its follow-up, '2'. A third album is now in the works.

His most successful partnering has been with fellow Pole and musical explorer Kuba Ziołek. Their performance at the 2016 OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland, led to the recording of the stunning 'Zimpel/Ziołek', an album that has transcended borders to find the pair reaching an ever-growing audience. Using the touchstones of Popol Vuh, Roy Harper, Moondog and even early Pink Floyd as a launch pad, the pair are reaching for the stars and holding them.

Working with drummer Hubert Zemler and pianist Krzysztof Dys, Wacław Zimpel formed LAM, an improvisational trio whose eponymous debut album successfully bridges the gap between minimalism and trance music.

Wacław Zimpel has also worked closely with contemporary/free jazz players Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, Joe PcPhee, famed composer, clarinetist anbd Grammy award winner Evan Ziporyn, techno producer Rabih Beaini, drum legend Trilok Gurtu and the master of Gnawa music Maallem Mokhtar Gania.

Wacław Zimpel's international profile has been steadily rising. Having won over domestic crowds at festivals such as OFF, Unsound and Tauron Nowa Muzyka Katowice, he's also thrilled international audiences at the Chicago Jazz Festival, Rewire Festival and the Mutek and Suoni Per il Popolo festivals in Montreal, as well as delivering one of the standout performances with Kuba Ziołek at the Rocket Recordings 20 festival in London."

"Ray Dickaty has made many recordings with various bands. Participated in numerous tours and appeared on television and radio around the world with Spiritualized, Moonshake and the extreme free jazz band Solar Fire Trio.

As a member of Spiritualized he made the albums "Live at the Albert Hall", "Let It Come Down" and "Amazing Grace". He played with Dr John on his album "Anutha Zone" which was one of his greatest pleasures.

In addition he has recorded and performed with among others ; Sonic Youth, Suicide, Loka, Moose, Lush, Stereolab, the Durutti Column, AMP, the Duke Spirit, Cornershop, Six to Seven, Damo Suzuki, Thighpaulsandra, Soulsavers (Mark Lanegan), Gallon Drunk, Michael J Sheehey, Dead Skeletons, Mark Gardener and Laetitia Sadier.

Collaborated with Eddie Prevost, the legendary founder of the AMM, as well as playing concerts with improvisers such as Peter Brotzmann, Satoko Fuji, Augusti Fernandez, Paal Nilssen Love, Philip Marks, Chris Corsano, Brigitte Kuepper, John Butcher, Lol Coxhill, Carlos Zingaro, John Edwards, Martin Kuchen, Jeffrey Morgan, Evan Parker and many others.

He currently lives in Warsaw and is an active participant in the Polish improvised music scene.

In addition he is a founder member of the following bands:

Infant Joy Quintet, Noise of Wings, Line of Fire, KoM Trio, Osaka Vacuum and Sounds of the Night Sky electro acoustic ensemble.

He is also the founder/director and principal conductor of the Warsaw Improviser Orchestra, and Music Director and Workshop leader of "Spacefest" Festival, Gdansk."

"Gerard Lebik - sound artist, musician living Wroclaw/Poland. Works with improvised, experimental and intermedia music. He's the author of sound installations and sound interventions in public space. Creates music and sound either by improvisation, musical notation or through direct manipulation of sonic material using electro and acoustic media. Explores the audible phenomena field through various tools and techniques: saxophones, zopan wave generators, air compressors, VHS recorders, video objects, electronics, analog video feedback, software. In 2007 graduated Wroclaw Academy of Music. Performed with: David Maranha, Eryck Abecassis, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Keith Rowe, Clayton Thomas, Satoko Fuji, Brian Labycz, Hernani Faustino, Miguel A Garcia, Gabriel Ferrnandini, Noritaka Tanaka, Bettina Wenzel, hans w koch, Joker Nies, Rodrigo Pinheiro, Christian Marien, Marc Riordan,, Pawel Janicki, Piotr Damasiewicz, Artur Majewski, Kuba Suchar, Ura Hiroyuki, Sebastian Meissner, Yamaguchi Jin Lang... Events: V:NM-Festival in Graz, Bienale Zagreb, TodaysArt Festival Hague, Tokyo Jazz, Festival Umbrella Chicago, Musica Electronica Nova, Sibiu Jazz and More, Avant Art, Musica Electronica Nova, Musica Polonica, Survival Art Review, SuperDeluxe-Tokyo, Alte Feuerwache-Cologne, CSW-Warszawa, Galeria Kordegarda, De Werf-Brugge, Pit Inn Shinjuku-Tokyo, Ftarri-Tokyo, Quite Que-Berlin."-All About Jazz

"Artur Majewski is a trumpeter, born in Wrocław in 1978. Known as a member of Robotobibok, Mikrokolektyw and the Foton Quartet, as well as for his improvisations with various artists.

He started his musical career at a young age on piano but at the age of 10 he switched to the trumpet. In 2002 he graduated from Music Academy in Katowice under world famous trumpeter Professor Piotr Wojtasik . Majewski's thesis focused on the output of Don Cherry - a godfather of avant-garde-jazz trumpet. Robotobibok

During his studies he co-founded Robotobibok (a portmanteau of the Polish words for robot and slacker), a band which explored the boundaries of rock, jazz, electronic and drum'n'bass. Its popularity in late 1990s and early 2000s was considerable in Poland as well as in other European countries. In 2002 they toured the United States and Europe, visiting London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin, and Zagreb. During the nine years of Robotobibok's existence they released three albums: Jogging (2000), Instytut Las (Institute Forest, 2003) and Nawyki Przyrody (Nature's Habits 2004). An independent recording company - OM Vytvornia - founded by Robotobibok's members, published all of them.

Mikrokolektyw

Together with Robotobibok's drummer Kuba Suchar, Artur Majewski founded a duet - Mikrokolektyw (Microcollective). It is regarded as one of the most important combos in Polish improvised music. Its value can be proved by enthusiastic reviews and the fact that they are the only Polish band that publishes its albums in the world-famous recording label Delmark Records run by Ken Vandermark.

Other collaborations

Majewski is also a member of Foton Quartet, alongside Gererd Lebik, Wojtek Romanowski and Kuba Cywiński. So far, they have released one album, Zomo Hall, published by celebrated NOT Two Records. He cooperates with the Szczecin band Kristen, as well, and tours in a duet with bass player Rafał Mazur. With him, Anna Kaluza and Kuba Suchar, he recorded the album entitled Tone Hunting, which was published by Portuguese improvised music label Clean Feed Records.

Years into his career, thanks to his unprecedented artistic abilities and his own original musical language, Artur Majewski has become one of the most interesting improvisers in Europe and has started to draw more and more attention from American improvisers. He cooperates regularly with Rob Mazurek in his famous Exploding Star Orchestra and with Joshua Abrahms and his Chicago-based Natural Information Society."

"Dominik Strycharski: A Polish composer, blockflute player, singer, improviser, performer and writer. He plays and composes contemporary jazz in many electric and acoustic incarnations, contemporary music, electronic music, theater music, post-hip-hop, noise as well as various types of improvised music in his own bands: Pulsarus, Prophetic Fall and Organic Panic Quartett. He also works with contemporary vocal techniques and plays improvised and jazz music on modern recorders/blockflutes.

Pulsarus (Dominik Strycharski - processed blockflutes, vocals, electronics, leader, Jakub Rutkowski - acoustic and electronic drums, Alexander Papierz - saxophones) made its debut album Digital Freejazz in May 2005. The band performed at the festival Arhytmic Depot Art in Gdansk in 2005 and twice at Warsaw Summer Jazz Days (2005 and 2006), as well as JAZ festival in Zabrze and Slot Art Festival in Lubiąż. In 2006 their second album was released, with guest apperance of Tomasz Gwincinski. Squared Rotoscope was produced by Piotr Pawlak.2009 saw the release of the third and the most important album of the trio so far, FAQ. Among other venues, Pulsarus appeared at Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, Avant Festival, Art Depot, Slot Art Festival, Transvisualia, Cinema on the Border, the Malta Festival in Berlin, the Polish Cultural Center, Era New Horizons, in Recklinghausen and in many clubs as well.

Strycharski is widely recognized as a composer of music for theatre. He also creates Doministry, a multi-dimensional solo project that combines contemporary electronic music, performance and electro-ambient. It is developed using the voice and its total electronic transformation. Improvisation plays a very important role in the project, which is open to all possible influences and concepts. Since 2001, as a composer and performer, he has been a part of Bretoncaffe Theatre, which was awarded several times. Theatre performances created by the group are staged regularly at Polish and international festivals (Berlin, Tallinn, Paris, Budapest, Prague)."

"Patryk Zakrocki: Musician, improviser, composer, sound artist, and illustrator (born in 1974 in Warsaw). He currently plays violin, oscillators and electric mbira as a half of the duet SzaZa and together with the guitarist Marcin Olak, alters the melodies of old music boxes, and co-creates two unique projects of his own conception: Gabinet Ucha Wewnętrznego / The Inner Ear Massage Parlour and Kino Dźwięku / Sound Cinema.

He passionately conducts improvising orchestras and choirs, works with chamber and electroacoustic music, and pushes the possibilities of audio drama. Patryk Zakrocki released 12 albums, including two solo works. Aside from countless shows in Europe, he also performed in USA, Island, Uruguay, Israel, Egypt, China and Japan."

"Marcin Olak: guitarist, composer, improvising and experimenting musician. He is one of the few who can play modern jazz on classical and acoustic guitars, using the specific sound and articulation possibilities of those instruments *; he also plays electric guitars. He moves between various styles: jazz, classical and contemporary pieces, from fully composed pieces to improvised music. Marcin Olak peforms solo and with various bands: from free-jazz combos, through classical guitar ensambles, to the symphony orchestra.

*[ Usually guitar in jazz is treated linearly. Most guitarists play with a pick, and are thus able to play a single note melody or chords. Marcin Olak - with his classical guitarist background - plays differently. He creates a multilevel, complex textures, using the specific sound and articulation possibilities of his guitars, as it is in the European guitar tradition. And that's not the end of surprises... ]

Marcin graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin's Academy of Music in Warsaw (PL) in classical guitar. He took part in numerous master classes with classical guitarists (like Roberto Aussel and Jorge Cardoso) and jazz performers (like Ralph Towner and Scott Henderson). Marcin Olak played at some of the most important polish guitar and jazz festivals, such as: Warsaw Summer Jazz Days (2013, 2008), Warszaw Autumn (2007,2009), Jazz na Buduku (2006, 2008, 2012), Jazz w Ruinach (2007), Guitar City (2005, 2008), Jazz Juniors (2005), Warsaw Underground Jazz (2003) and many more. The Warsaw Guitar Festival in 2008 seems particularly worth mentioning, as Marcin's own concerto for jazz guitar trio and orchestra was performed there for the first time. Marcin played on the most important stages in Poland, including the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw and the Witold Lutosławski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio. He has recorded for Polish radio and TV on numerous occasions. He doesn't avoid jazz clubs though."

"Rafal Mazur's involvement with music began in his youth with violoncello studies in Krakow. He switched to bass guitar in the late 1980's. Since 2000 he has played an acoustic bass guitar built to his own specifications by luthier Jerzy Wysocki. He has developed an advanced and individual approach to his instrument, and to improvisation in general, in which sonority, extended technique and gesture combine effortlessly in performance. He has taken an important role in Kraków to support young artists and improvised music. A founder of the ImproArt studio of improvisation, he has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. In recent years he has collaborated with Lisa Ullen, Frederic Blondy, Charlotta Hug, Raymond Strid, Keir Neuringer, Zsolt Sores and others. His current focus is the band "Ensemble 56" and "Mazur/Neuringer Duo". He is an organizer of the Laboratory of Intuition, a series of spontaneous art presentations in Kraków. Mazur's main field of interest and activity is collective and solo free/spontaneous improvisation. In his practice as an improvising musician and on his way to mastery/artistry he studys Chinese philosophy (Jagiellonian University). He regards Taoism as a strong base for the enrichment of the improviser's attitude, and to this end he practices the Taoist's martial art TaiJi Quan Chen. For Mazur, following the masters of Chinese philosophy and martial arts is crucial in the development of a state of mind prepared for the unexpected situations an improviser encounters in the act of collective free improvisation. During the Polish Sound Art in China tour in 2006, Mazur presented lectures in NiHiLo Gallery in Foshan and Zendai Art Museum in Shanghai, taking the opportunity to meet Chinese improvisers and discuss and compare his approaches to improvisation, Taoism and TaiJi. Mazur's most recent work is the first album of solo acoustic bass guitar free improvisation: 'Sonor Forms'. Released by independent label DTS Records in Krakow on its Transidiomatic series, the disc is the result of investigation into the practice of solo free improvisation."

"Ksawery Wojcinski is a double bassist, composer, and a versatile musician with a great sensitivity to sound. His interests span from early music to contemporary improvisation. His collaborators include Charles Gayle, Uri Caine, Michael Zerang, Satoko Fujii, Nicole Mitchell, Tim Sparks, Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson and Waclaw Zimpel. He is a member of several bands, has made a dozen recordings and performed at prestigious festivals in Poland and internationally."

"Hubert Zemler was born in 1980 in Warsaw. His studies at the Karol Szymanowski National Academy of Music and the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw provided a background in classical-musical traditions and led him to the art of percussion. During this period he toured the Middle East playing the music of Krzysztof Komeda link opens page in new window, the renowned Polish bandleader and composer, best known internationally for his soundtrack to Roman Polanski link opens page in new window 's film Rosemary's Baby. Zemler also joined the experimental jazz band TRIA. He has gone on to bring jazz into the realm of independent music, blending it with symphonic music, world music, rock, blues, pop and improvisation, and collaborating with institutions, bands and artists including the National Opera and Zbigniew Namysłowski link opens page in new window .

After taking the bronze medal at the Delphic Games competition in South Korea in 2009, Zemler performed solo at home and abroad. His concert at Chłodna 25 in Warsaw in December 2011 was recorded by Lado ABC, the most significant independent music label on Poland's contemporary music scene. Moped, Zemler's live set of percussion improvisations, was released later that year. The album was praised by critics for its diverse influences and emotional impact. In his popmusic.pl review of the album, Marcin Marchwiński remarks on the percussionist's talent for drawing wide sonic ranges from his instruments and blending them in a rich musical palette. Marchwiński writes,

The multiplicity of tones doesn't in this case indicate an eclectic form of chaos, everything has its order, subsequent accents appear gradually - from delicate murmurs to dynamic, controlled figures composed by the percussion, the African rhythms of the balafon and the ravenous hits of the concert finale. Nonetheless, this thought-through performance doesn't take away any of the dramaturgy or fresh, striking impression from the music.

Zemler is also part of the improvisational jazz band Horny Trees, together with Paweł Szamburski (electronic clarinet) and Maciej Trifonidis Bielawski (bass guitar). Lado ABC released their Branches of Dirty Delight in 2009, following a critically acclaimed eponymous debut in 2008, recorded on Kilogram Records. The band takes their metaphor of unbridled woods as the name and symbol of their sylvan approach to raw forms in improvised jazz."

"Frances Marie Uitti: Cello. Collaborating significantly over years with radicals, Dick Raaijmakers, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi, she has also worked closely with Iannis Xenakis, Elliott Carter, Brian Ferneyhough and countless composers from the new generation.

She tours as solist extensively throughout the world having played for audiences from New York City to Mongolia and appears regularly in such festivals as the Biennale Di Venezia, Strasbourg Festival, Gulbenkian Festival Ars Musica, Holland Festival and for radios and televisions in Europe, Japan, and the United States. She premiered cello concerti dedicated to her by Per Norgaard, Dick Raaijmakers, Jonathan Harvey, James Tenney, Peter Nelson and gave the first performance of the cello concerto of William Jeths in 2000. She premiered the newly discovered concerto by Giacinto Scelsi in 2008.

She's collaborated with pianist Rolf Hind, classical pianist Alwin Bar, filmmakers Frank Scheffer and Frans Zwartjes, avantgarde guitarist Elliott Sharp, accordionist Pauline Oliveros, DJ Scanner, DJ Low, and Stephen Vitiello and video master Ferenc van Damme.

Her compositons can be heard on ECM records, Cryptogrammophone, JdKrecords, Seraphin, Etcetera, and BVHaast.

The University of California Press has commissioned a 60,000 word book from her on Contemporary Cello Techniques. A massive treatise on the state of the art of cello and performance techniques from the Kodaly Sonata until the present, it is now in the finishing stages.Her treatise New Frontiers, was also published in the Cambridge Companion to the Cello, Cambridge University Press and for Muzik Texte, Koln, and Arcana, the collected writings of composers edited by John Zorn.She co-invented a Stringless Cello at CNMAT (UC Berkeley) with Adrian Freed and is now finishing an updated version at FabLab with Lex van den Broek and Johan van Kreij.In addition, she has invented resonators that amplify the beats and subharmonics produced by two intervals played simultaneously. Giacinto Scelsi commissioned her to design and produce a resonator for his own works. ( http://uitti.blogspot.com/2009/06/scelsiuitti-resonators.html) At present she is redesigning the upper and lower bows used in her TwoBow technique under tutelage of Andreas Grutter, master bow maker.

As a teacher, Frances-Marie Uitti has given lectures and master classes at practically all the major European conservatories (Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen, Royal Conservatorium Den Haag, Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam, Royal Conservatory Brussels, Santa Cecilia Roma, Hochschule fur Musik in Koln, Hochschule Basle etc) and many music schools in the USA (see added list). In 1997 she was named a Regents Professor at the University of California San Diego and again in 2007 at UC Berkeley. In 1998 she shared teaching with Anner Bijlsma and Ralph Kirschbaum at the International Cello Festival in Aarhus. In 1999 she was invited to Mills College to give lectures and masterclasses as well as teach contemporary techniques. For many summers, she has taught at the Dartington International Chamber music Festival as well as being professor of cello at Darmstadt International Summer Festival. In 2002-2003 she was invited as Guest Professor at Oberlin Conservatory teaching classical cello repertory and chamber music.Ms Uitti has also given masterclasses at the Juilliard School of Music, Yale University, Northwestern University in 2003. She was invited for a Fromm Foundation residency at Harvard University in the season 2003/04.She is often invited to sit on the juries for the International Symposium of Composers Meeting (ISCM Festival), Gaudeamus Competition for Composers, Gaudeamus Performers Competition, ICMC London.

She has traveled frequently to Bhutan and is founder of the Bhutan Music Foundation, a charitable non-profit setup to promote the music of Bhutan, the musical education of Bhutanese, and the preservation of Bhutanese indigenous music.

Recordings:ECM records, Wergo, CRI, Mode, HatHut, Raretone, Cramps, JdKrecordings, BVHaast, Etcetera, Cryptogramophone."

"Joel Ryan (NL/US) is a composer, inventor and scientist - a pioneer in the design of musical instruments based on real time digital signal processing.

Joel Ryan could serve as a paradigm of a strain of American inventor/composers. Starting from a scientific rather than a musical education, he moved into music by degrees from physics via philosophy, studying with Herbert Marcuse, and Albert Hofstadter, and instrumental study with among others Mexican film composer and guitarist Jose Barroso and Ravi Shankar. This was in California at a time when it was possible to regularly attend performances by Subbulakshmi and Jimmy Hendrix, John Cage and Harry Partch, Thelonius Monk and John Coltrane, experiences which released him forever from the spell of academic modernism. He enrolled at the infamous Mills College Center for Contemporary Music near San Francisco where, by way of composers Robert Ashley and David Behrman he joined the emerging community of artist hackers which helped define Silicon Valley. Ryan sought to bring a concreteness to digital electronic media through the intelligent touch of the performer. Performance was the essential missing ingredient and he became a pioneer in the design and playing of real-time interactive digital signal processing instruments.

He has collaborated extensively with composers and artists such as Evan Parker, George Lewis, Bill Forsyth, FM Uitti, Steina Vasulka, Jerry Hunt, Michel Waisvisz and ArtAngel. Formerly a Research Associate at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories of the University of California, he has taught philosophy, physics, and mathematics. He currently works at STEIM in Amsterdam, tours with the Frankfurt Ballet and is Docent at the Institute of Sonology. His music has been performed in the Theater Chatelet in Paris, the Concertgebau Amsterdam, the Akadamie Der Kunst and VolksTheater in Berlin, the Kitchen in New York and at the Alameda Festival in London. Most recently he has collaborated with William Forsyth on EIDOS/TELOS, Tight Roaring Circle, Sleepers Guts and Kammer Kammer for the Frankfurt Ballet; and with James McDonald on Roberto Zucco for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Other works include The Number Readers, Hat Moon Joy, and The Effect of Noise on the Sleep of Children."

"Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He also taught at Guildhall School of Music.

Born in London, Guy came to the fore as an improvising bassist as a member of a trio with pianist Howard Riley and drummer Tony Oxley (Witherden, 1969). He also became an occasional member of John Stevens' ensembles in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. In the early 1970s, he was a member of the influential free improvisation group Iskra 1903 with Derek Bailey and trombonist Paul Rutherford (a project revived in the late 1970s, with violinist Philipp Wachsmann replacing Bailey). He also formed a long-standing partnership with saxophonist Evan Parker, which led to a trio with drummer Paul Lytton which became one of the best-known and most widely travelled free-improvising groups of the 1980s and 1990s. He was briefly a member of the Michael Nyman Band in the 1980s, performing on the soundtrack of The Draughtsman's Contract.

Guy's interests in improvisation and formal composition received their grandest form in the London Jazz Composers Orchestra. Originally formed to perform Guy's composition Ode in 1972 (released as a 2-LP set on Incus and later, in expanded form, as a 2-CD set on Intakt), it became one of the great large-scale European improvising ensembles. Early documentation is spotty - the only other recording from its early years is Stringer (FMP, now available on Intakt paired with the later "Study II") - but beginning in the late 1980s the Swiss label Intakt set out to document the band more thoroughly. The result was a series of ambitious, album-length compositions designed to give all the players in the band maximum opportunity for expression while still preserving a rigorous sense of form: Zurich Concerts, Harmos, Double Trouble (originally written for an encounter with Alexander von Schlippenbach's Globe Unity Orchestra, though the eventual CD was just for the LJCO), Theoria (a concerto for guest pianist Irène Schweizer), Three Pieces, and Double Trouble Two. The group's activities subsided in the mid-1990s, but it was never formally disbanded, and reconvened in 2008 for a one-off concert in Switzerland. In the mid-1990s Guy also created a second, smaller ensemble, the Barry Guy New Orchestra.

Guy has also written for other large improvising ensembles, such as the NOW Orchestra and ROVA (the piece Witch Gong Game inspired by images by the visual artist Alan Davie).

His current improvising activities include piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Agusti Fernandez. He has also recorded several albums for ECM, which often focus on the interface between improvisers and electronics, including his work in Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and his own Ceremony.

Guy's session work in the pop field includes playing double bass on the song "Nightporter", from the Japan album Gentlemen Take Polaroids.

He is married to the early music violinist Maya Homburger. After spending some years in Ireland, they now live in Switzerland. They run the small label Maya, which releases a variety of records in the genres of free improvisation, baroque music and contemporary composition.

Guy's jazz work is characterised by free improvisation, using a range of unusual playing methods: bowed and pizzicato sounds beneath the bass's bridge; plucking the strings above the left hand; beating the strings with percussion instrument mallets; and "preparing" the instrument with sticks and other implements inserted between the strings and fingerboard. His improvisations are often percussive and unpredictable, inhabiting no discernible harmonic territory and pushing into unknown regions. However, they can also be melodious and tender with due regard for harmonic integration with other players, and at times he will even play with a straight jazz swing feel.

Similarly, in his concert works, Guy manages to alternate harmonic and rhythmic complexity worthy of 1960s experimentalists such as Penderecki and Stockhausen with joyous, often ecstatic, melody. Works such as "Flagwalk" for string orchestra and "Fallingwater - Concerto for Orchestra" display Guy's compositional skill in handling extended forms and writing for large instrumental groups.

Some of his compositions, such as "Witch Gong Game" for ensemble, use graphic notation in conjunction with cue cards to lead performers into playing and improvising material from numbered sections of the score.

He is also an architect."

"Ramon Lopez was born on August 6th 1961 in Alicante, Spain. Drummer, Percussionist and Composer. He began as a self-taught drummer in the mid-1970's. Witnessing a Max Roach solo concert in 1980 was a turning point that fundamentally changed his understanding of music. He was part of local groups until he decided to move to Paris in January 1985 and became increasingly involved in the experimental scene in France. At the same time, he developed an interest in Indian music, and took tabla lessons with Krishna Govinda K.C. He is currently a student of Pandit Subhankar Banerjee, while teaching Indian music himself with Patrick Moutal at the Paris Conservatory (1994-2001) His first recording as a leader, an album of solo drums, was released in 1997 on the British Leo label linked to free jazz music and improvisation. Besides Jazz and Indian music, he is attracted especially to flamenco music. He has worked with some of the great flamenco artists, among them Carmen Linares, Esperanza Fernández, Inés Bacán, Gerardo Núñez, Rafael de Utrera, Chano Domínguez, etc... His musical endeavours have always been challenging; his interpretation of songs from the Spanish civil war (2001) spring to mind, or his duos dedicated to Roland Kirk (2002). From 1997 to 2000 he was drummer in the renowned French Orchestre National de Jazz under Didier Levallet, who continues to expand the traditional vocabulary of the orchestra with new elements. Among many others, Lopez has worked at concerts and festivals and in the recording studio with the following musicians of the jazz avant-garde: Beñat Achiary, Rashied Ali, Majid Bekkas, Anthony Coleman, Andrew Cyrille, Sophia Domancich, Agustí Fernández, Glenn Ferris, Sonny Fortune, Barry Guy, Charles Gayle, Teppo Hauta-Aho, Howard Johnson, Hans Koch, Joachim Kuhn, Daunik Lazro, Jeanne Lee, Thierry Madiot, Roscoe Mitchell, Joe Morris, Ivo Perelman, Enrico Rava, Paul Rogers, Louis Sclavis, Alain Silva, Archie Shepp, John Surman, Claude Tchamitchian, Mal Waldron, Christine Wodrascka... Ramon Lopez is an un-typical percussionist. He is a musician who has mastered a number of different musical traditions. He loves to work with artists from other disciplines, with actors, choreographers or visual artists. He is currently one of the most respected European musicians in the area of contemporary jazz or improvised music. The French government named him "Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters" in 2008."-Jorge García, Institut Valencia de la Musica.