"Martin Archer was born in Sheffield, England, in 1957. He started playing saxophone at age 15 and first got active on the Sheffield improvisational scene in 1973. In the early '80s, he recorded an LP with Bass Tone Trap, his first group. In 1983 he formed the saxophone quartet Hornweb, which, in ten years of existence, released three albums. It is during that time that Archer released his first solo album, Wild Pathway Favourites (1988) and founded the Discus label on which he since releases all his music.

In 1993, he disbanded Hornweb and turned to synthesizers and sequencers while shifting his activities from stage to studio. He developed a compositional approach in which he records improvisers soloing, then manipulates this raw material, combining it with electronics and structuring it into a whole new piece. This technique is illustrated on Wild Pathway Favourites, Ghost Lily Cascade (1996), and Pure Water Construction (with bassist Simon H. Fell, released in 1999). Later works such as Winter Pilgrim Arriving (2000) moved toward more constructed and less abstract pieces, even making room for melodies and rhythm tracks at times.

Apart from his solo work, Archer is also involved in Ask, a duo with guitarist John Jasnoch, and Transient v Resident, an ambient electronics project with Chris Bywater."-All Music, François Couture

"Martin Archer is a composer / improviser who is equally at home on stage or in the studio. His own distinctive saxophone playing is rooted in AACM jazz. Through his use of keyboards and electronics, and as a studio producer, he extends this interest into extended song form and leftfield rock music. He is also co-director of the uncategorisably avant choir Juxtavoices.

His principle music work is the Discus Music label, the imprint for his various releases, notably by the groups described below.

His current jazz based projects include Engine Room Favourites (current a 4 drummer, 14 piece big band), Story Tellers (6 piece group including shaman instruments alongside the conventional instruments), plus various ad hoc smaller groups. All of these are strongly aligned with AACM tradition and teaching.

Archer has a long running duo with veteran vocalist Julie Tippetts. Each of their highly acclaimed CD releases deliberately explores song from a different perspective - the duo aims to be truly progressive, and takes in elements from jazz, rock, soul and pure abstraction.

Archer's main live performance vehicle is the trio Inclusion Principle with Herve Perez and Peter Fairclough. The group operates in a space between electronics, nu-jazz, contemporary electroacoustic music and free improvisation. In performance you will hear pure jazz skill, electronic beats and areas of texture and abstraction all seamlessly woven into a fascinating and constantly shifting tapestry of sound.

The sprawling Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere was formed by Archer as an improvising rock group with shades of Terry Riley, Magma, Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, very much in the progressive / krautrock tradition, and noted for its large scale string, horn and vocal arrangements.

Also in rock music, Archer is a member of the USA based heavier than plutonium prog / sludge / zeuhl group Combat Astronomy under the direction of Jamie Huggett.

Surprising, delighting and occasionally alarming audiences for a number of years now, Juxtavoices is a 30 piece choir for mainly untrained voices co directed by Archer with Alan Halsey which has racked up dozens of performances and issued three CDs.

This eclectic combination of sources and highly individual applications makes Archer a unique inhabitant of the school of English maverick composer / improvisers. "-Discus

"Trumpeter Charlotte Keeffe's unique approach and passion for improvised, experimental and jazz music has seen her performing regularly across the UK and internationally as a soloist and as part of several ensembles, duos and trios. Her music has been featured on BBC Radio 3, Resonance FM and Jazz FM and recent appearances with her quartet include Jazz In The Round and a sell-out performance at Lancaster Jazz Festival. Other recent highlights include being featured as a performer and composer/arranger on Sheffield-based Martin Archer's latest project, Anthropology Band, performances with Alex Ward's Item 4 and regular appearances and conductions with the London Improvisers Orchestra.

Inspired by the likes of Miles Davis and Polish artist Tomasz Stańko, Charlotte studied Jazz Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama before going on to become a scholarship recipient at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a Help Musicians UK Award Winner. With her Quartet, Charlotte explores the relationship between her compositions and experimental improvisation, producing a unique musical experience inspiring creative freedom of expression. Bassist Ashley John Long, drummer Ben Handysides and guitarist Moss Freed join Charlotte in this latest collaboration.

Charlotte is also a performer with The Brass Monkeys, Moss Freed's Union Division and Calum Gourlay's Big Band. She took part in the Summer Studios Artist Residency 2019 with drummer Andrew Lisle and bassist Otto Willberg in Andrew's trio project at The Sage, Gateshead. Charlotte played in Marin Alsop's Taki Concordia Orchestra at the World Economic Forum 2019 playing to world leaders and celebrities including Sir David Attenborough. She's performed at several music festivals including Brecon Jazz as part of Steve Waterman's Big Band, Glastonbury and Wilderness alongside Liane Carroll, Charlotte Church, Laura Mvula, Kate Nash, Camille O'Sullivan and Will Young."

"Chris Sharkey is a musician from the north-east of England.

Based in leeds since 1999, chris has dedicated the last 20 years to making forward-thinking new music that blurs boundaries between improvisation, production, composition and the associated genres of these often separated fields.

He is an active national and international performer as a member of Acoustic Ladyland, Triovd, Shiver, The Geordie Approach, Roller Trio and as a solo artist.

Chris is a also a producer and has recorded, mixed and remixed music for for ACV, Mole, Taupe, Seb Rochford, Oliver Coates, Troyka, World Service Project, Triovd, Shiver, Beyond Albedo, Session Fries, The Geordie Approach, Roller Trio, The Orchid And The Wasp and more."

"Born 27 July 1960; Piano, electronics. Pat Thomas started playing at the age of 8 and studied classical music and played reggae. He began playing jazz at sixteen after seeing Oscar Peterson on television then listened to snatches of jazz on the radio before, in 1979, playing his first serious improvised gigs. From 1986 he played with Ghosts which was Pete McPhail and Matt Lewis.

In addition to programming his keyboards, Pat Thomas also utilises prerecorded tapes. He told Chris Blackford (1991), 'As far as the tapes are concerned I'll probably just sit in front of the TV and tape whatever's going on and so some editing afterward to decide what might be useful. ...But I don't actually put a label on each tape saying what's on there, so when I come to use them I don't know what I'm going to be playing. That obviously prevents me from setting things up. I pick them at random and see what happens. So I'm just as surprised as anybody else at what comes out'.

In 1988 he was awarded an Arts Council Jazz Bursary to write three new electroacoustic compositions for his ten-piece ensemble, Monads: Roger Turner and Matt Lewis, percussion; Pete McPhail, WX7 wind synthesizer; Neil Palmer, turntables; Phil Minton, voice; Phil Durrant, violin; Marcio Mattos, bass; Jon Corbett, trumpet; Geoff Searle, drum machines. The intention was to feature different aspects of electronics using improvisation so, for example, one piece - Dialogue - featured Pete McPhail and Neil Palmer, another concentrated on the interaction of percussionists and drum machines, and a third piece had Phil Minton and Jon Corbett improvising with a computer. The pieces were performed at the Crawley Outside-In Festival of new music in 1989.

Pat Thomas was invited by Derek Bailey to play in Company Week in 1990 and 1991 and he also took part in the Ist International Symposium for Free Improvisation in Bremen with the guitarist. He has been a member of the Tony Oxley Quartet (documented on Incus CD 15) and played in Oxley's Angular Apron along with Larry Stabbins, Manfred Schoof and Sirone at the 8th Ruhr Jazz Meeting and in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. He plays with Lol Coxhill in a range of combinations from duo to being a member of 'Before my time', is a member of Mike Cooper's Continental Drift, and he has a well established duo with percussionist Mark Sanders and a trio with Steve Beresford and Francine Luce. In 1992 Pat Thomas formed the quartet Scatter with Phil Minton, Roger Turner and Dave Tucker; funded by the Arts Council they toured the UK in 1993 and again at the beginning of 1997.

On the 'Festival circuit', Pat Thomas has appeared at: the Young Improvisors Festival at the Korzo Theatre, Den Haag (with Jim O'Rourke, Mats Gustafsson and Alexander Frangenheim); Angelica 95 in Bologna, Italy; the Stuttgart 5th Festival of Improvised Music 96 (with Fred Frith, Shelly Hirsch, Carlos Zingaro and others); and the 3rd International Festival 96 in Budapest (with Evan Parker, Phil Minton, John Russell and Roger Turner).

"Born and based in Derby, Corey Mwamba's commitment to jazz and improvised music in Britain and Ireland drives all aspects of his work, whether through composition, playing, or promoting new music. Corey predominantly plays vibraphone; he also plays dulcimer and uses audio processing software. He is recognised as a highly creative improviser and composer working across a wide range of jazz and contemporary music. Mwamba's distinctive approach and tone is instantly recognisable in any context: a potent blend of pure sound, highly melodic phrases and ethereal textures; barely whispered chords and ear-piercing robotic screams. Corey won a PRSF/Jerwood Foundation Take Five artist development award in 2007; was short-listed for the Innovation category in the BBC Jazz Awards in 2008; and was nominated for "Rising Star on Vibraphone" in the 62nd, 63rd, and 64th DownBeat Annual Critics' Polls.

Mwamba's main group is the critically acclaimed Yana with Dave Kane (bass) and Joshua Blackmore (drums). This group exemplifies a core ideal of creating an "open, living music"; listening and responding spontaneously as a unit to make music that has love, language and a groove. Their first studio release don't overthink it was hailed as "engaging and evocative" (All About Jazz) and described as "the sound of three minds working together in a utopian zone, way beyond the individual ego - and producing something quite beautiful in the process" (Jazzwise). Dave and Corey are also in an improvising sextet called The Spirit Farm, formed out of research by pianist Adam Fairhall. Mwamba and Fairhall also form a trio with drummer Johnny Hunter called Backyard Chassis.

He is a member of the Anglo-French quartet Sonsale with bassist Andy Champion, drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq and cellist Valentin Ceccaldi. Corey also works with Andy in an improvising trio with saxophonist Ntshuks Bonga. He plays in duos with saxophonist Rachel Musson; pianist Robert Mitchell; percussionists Martin Pyne and Walt Shaw; and the multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson. [...]

Mwamba was granted an AHRC studentship for a Master of Research degree in Music at Keele University, for which he was awarded a distinction in 2014. Through this research, he developed new dark art, which is a notational and theoretical music system that takes early European medieval music practice as a starting point to create modern music. He is currently undertaking doctoral research in Jazz Studies at Birmingham City University on a Midlands3Cities/AHRC studentship."

"Dave Sturt began playing bass guitar and recording at the age of 17. In 1982 he moved to London and soon broke into the session scene working alongside film composer Michael Kamen, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, Roxy Music drummer Andy Newmark, and David Bowie sideman Earl Slick amongst others. In 1987 Sturt joined Jade Warrior, recording two albums as bass player, composer and co-producer alongside Tom Newman (Tubular Bells). He went on to compose themes and incidental music for film and television as well as playing sessions for Pol Brennan (Clannad), BeatsystemUK and Theo Travis. Live work developed with Cuban/American guitarist Isaac Guillory, Thee na Shee, The Fraser Sisters, Andy Sheppard, Bosco D'Olivera and Bill Nelson. Sturt's current main projects are Cipher (with Theo Travis), producing three albums and several scores to silent films, and Jade Warrior, who released their album, NOW in 2008 on the WindWeaver record label.

During 2009 and 2010, Dave toured Europe playing bass for both Gong and Steve Hillage. In 2011 he played bass with Bill Nelson on the Classic Rock Legends live DVD.

In 2012 Dave composed soundtracks for 'Ben Rushgrove - a documentary' for Channel 4 and for 'Past Lives' - (along with Theo Travis) - a touring live performance with archive footage from The Media Archive for Central England. He also toured Europe, the UK and Japan with Gong

2013 saw Gong playing in Sao Paulo, where the recording of the new album began - which continued throughout the year. Also the Past Lives Project started - a two year film and music project funded by the Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Fund.

Gong performed again in Brazil in March 2014 - with Kavus Torabi on guitar - and the album 'I See You' was completed in July. Apart from playing the bass, Dave also co- composed several of the tracks, contributed soundscapes and co - produced the album. Also the album Discretion by Theo Travis and Robert Fripp was released - mixed by Dave and Steven Wilson and mastered by Andy Jackson."

"Since graduating from the City of Leeds College of Music with Distinction in Drums and Percussion, Peter Fairclough has performed and/or recorded with Keith Tippett, Paul Dunmall, Ute Lemper, Huw Warren, Peter Whyman, Steve Berry, John Harle, Kenny Davern, Peter King, The Matrix Ensemble, The Bournemouth Sinfonietta, The Mike Westbrook Orchestra and The Theatre Royal Company (York).

He has 5 CDs to his own credit:

IMAGO (Jazzprint JPVP132)CD - with Keith Tippett), Wild Silk (ASC CD8 - with Keith Tippett), Permission (ASC CD18) and Shepherd Wheel (ASC CD1). The most recent release is Momentarily with Hayley Youell, Fred T Baker & Dave Bainbridge.

In 1995 he was awarded the Peter Whittingham Award and he has toured extensively abroad, appearing at many top jazz festivals.

Peter teaches Drum Kit at The Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and Leeds College of Music."

Ben Higham is a UK brass player & vocalist, known for his work with the bands The Vu!gar Boatmen, The Happy End, Inner State, Monk Inc., Martin Archer's Anthropology Band, and The People Band.

"Mick Somerset aka Michael Ronald Ward is signed as a writer to BMG Chrysalis Music. I also play all woodwinds and keyboards / percussion and vocals. He has written over 20 top twenty singles and contributed to many hit albums. He played piccolo on the number one hit "Everything Changes" by Take That which he also wrote, and he made two albums in the US with hit producer Don Was. He is also an improviser, performing on Selmer V1 saxes nino/s/a/t/b. King Super 20 tenor and King saxello . Uebel flute, Kuiper altoflute Kingma bassflute. Selmer bassclt/ Selmer Bb/ Patricola Eb."

Nathan Bettany is a UK oboist, known for the bands Juxtavoices, The Cambridge Free Improvisation Society, and Martin Archer's Anthropology Band.

"James Mainwaring grew up in Swansea and at the age of 9 he began learning the clarinet. Demonstrating an early natural ability he passed his grade 8 aged 12. On leaving school he entered the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and 2 years later he transfered to the Royal Academy of Music.

During his studies there he took up the Saxophone and Flute and was a founder member of the award winning "Moriarty Saxophone Quartet". Whilst studying, James began to establish his freelance career working for TV, Radio and with various orchestras.

1994 saw a move to Germany to play in many "Musical" productions including "Phantom Of The Opera" and "Beauty And The Beast". In 1999 he returned to the UK to tour in various musical productions. Since 2003 James has played in the West End of London, performing in many shows such as "The Producers", "Billy Elliot", "Wicked", "Matilda", "Charlie And The Chocolate Factory" whilst also continuing to be in demand as a freelance player in various musical genres.

For his own personal development James continues to study a variety of musical instruments and styles."

"Hannah Brady is a musician, educator, and composer who has worked both privately and in schools, acquiring many years of experience. As a peripatetic music teacher, Hannah taught whole class vocal and instrumental sessions. This led her to develop In the Gap! as an easy and accessible resource for teachers to incorporate improvisation into their lessons. Hannah believes that improvisation and creativity are wonderful ways to engage children and develop fundamental musical skills and confidence.

Hannah is also a performing musician, having studied jazz saxophone at Birmingham Conservatoire. She runs a weekly improvisation workshop for Sheffield Jazz and is a key member of "Jazz at The Lescar", a not-for-profit organization bringing artists from all over the country to perform in the city."

"UK-based Irishman Riley Stone-Lonergan started working as a professional musician in Ireland at the age of 16. Riley soon moved to the UK to study at Leeds College of Music. In 2011, he graduated with 1st Class Honours and was the recipient of a number of awards including the Dave Cooper Memorial Prize for Jazz Saxophone, John Scheerer Prize for Woodwind and David Hoult Prize for Outstanding Performance.

Selected as a Yamaha Jazz Scholar in 2011, Riley's quartet was featured in Jazzwise Magazine as well as performing at the 606 Club in London. Shortly after, Riley moved to London and began to work with various London groups. He was able to do a tour of Germany, a televised performance with NYJO at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms (including special guest Tim Garland) and was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the London Music Awards 2015.

In recent years, Riley has made three extended trips to New York City. Here, he studied with Seamus Blake, Chris Cheek, Rich Perry and Joel Frahm and recorded his original material at Tedesco Studios, as well as performing in Washington DC.

In the last few years Riley has been a part of two co-lead projects who have both self-released an album and toured extensively:

Perpetual Motion Machine is a rock and metal inspired twin guitar and twin saxophone sextet made up of Jazz musicians who want to explore sonic realms outside Jazz while still preserving its improvisatory nature. The music is entirely written by the members of the band. PMM recorded their debut Iginition in 2017 and followed this up with a 15 date tour of every corner of the UK.

Family Band is a chordless trumpet and tenor quartet brought together by a love for late 60's free Jazz in the vein of Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, Don Cherry and John Coltrane, but their music has evolved into its own beast, with spoken word and political themes woven in. They self-released Board of Origin in 2018 and embarked on a month long UK tour.

Riley also leads his own quartet and gigs regularly in London, throughout the UK and Europe. He performed.as a featured soloist at Bergamo Jazz Festival in Italy and has toured throughout Ireland, Germany, Poland and Ischia, an island off the coast of Italy, as well as all the most prestigious festivals in the UK including Manchester Jazz Festival, Edinburgh Jazz Festival and London Jazz Festival. In March 2019 Riley did a week long tour of France under his name with French pianist Fabrice Tarel. This was such a success that he is going again in August for more concerts and to record a video, and in October for a further week-long tour. They are planning to record the project in the near future.

Riley's primary focus as a music creator is improvisation, the element of Jazz that brings him the most joy. Riley's entire life and career is driven by the desire to both improvise and hear other people improvise, it is the highest level of creativity and artistic expression."

"Baritone saxophonist/composer Alicia Gardener-Trejo has been active on the jazz scene since 2007. Whilst at Birmingham Conservatoire, she studied with Iain Dixon, Mike Williams, Hans Koller and John Taylor. She played alongside Gary Smulyan and Norma Winstone in the Conservatoire Jazz Orchestra and in 2013, took the baritone chair in Arnie Somogyi's Mingus Big Band project.

As a sideman, Alicia performs regularly with Samantha Wright's Double Clarinet Quintet, Bostin Brass Band and plays baritone for Birmingham Jazz Orchestra. Her own ensembles include an 11-piece band 'Bobtail' and a chordless quintet.

Alicia's inspiration as a composer comes from jazz artists including Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, George Russell, Gunther Schuller, Bill Frisell and Wayne Horvitz, but also draws on influences from Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok and the music of Carl Stalling."