John Butcher lives in London and began playing saxophone professionally in the early 80s. He initially worked in jazz (inc. the 'BBC Award' winning Chris Burn Group's "Mingus Suite"), contemporary dance and music theatre. At this time he was completing his research in physics with a doctorate on the theoretical properties of charmed quarks. Since leaving academia in 1982 he has worked almost exclusively in improvisation and 'new music'. His music ranges through free improvisation, various structurings, his own compositions, multitracked pieces, work with pre-recorded tape, and also live electronics. His first LP was Fonetiks (1985) - a duo with pianist Chris Burn. In 1984 he began another long term commitment - a trio with Phil Durrant and John Russell - later adding Radu Malfatti and Paul Lovens to form News from the Shed. In 1987 he began running the record label ACTA. Solo concerts have long been a particular enthusiasm and challenge. He first recorded multitracked saxophones on Thirteen Friendly Numbers ('92) - receiving three Arts Council Bursaries to research this and multiphonic possibilities. His other solo CDs, London and Cologne (1996) and Fixations (2001) focus on live performance. A long standing interest in electronic music has led to a recent live electro-manipulations duo with Phil Durrant. A selection of groups he has played with include Derek Bailey's Company Weeks, the final version of John Stevens' Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Frisque Concordance with Georg Graewe, The Phil Minton Quartet's mouthful of ecstasy project, Fred van Hove's t'nonet, Butch Morris' London Skyscraper, the Austrian new-music group Polwechsel. As an improviser he continues to play in many occasional, often once-only settings, for instance duos with Fred Frith, Misha Mengelberg, Derek Bailey, Carlos Zingaro, Steve Beresford, Kaffe Matthews, Joe Morris, Jin Hi Kim.

Christoph Irmer, born 1958, lives in Wuppertal (Germany). After his diploma for violin at the Highschool of Music Cologne he started to play Free Improvised Music and Free Jazz. In 1992 he was a member of the improvising orchestra of the "Documenta IX" at Kassel (organized und conducted by Jon Rose), 1994/95 he played in the project of Peter Kowald "365 days in town" and in his "Ort-Ensemble". Since 1996 he was included in a various number of projects and collaborations, so with Tony Oxley, Trevor Watts and others at the "Drumming for Africa" at Viersen, 1998 in the "Statements Quintet" with Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, Ursel Schlicht, Hans Tammen (CD Leo Lab 054), since 2000 as a member of the jazz performance band "Supernova" (together with Jan Klare, Peter Eisold and others, see http://www.supernova-orchester.de). In addition he is working with dancers specially basing on the Butoh, as in 1998/99, when he cooperated with the T.M.T.4.2.-Theatre in: "Sind Sie wahnsinnig", following a short story by Heiner Müller. From 2001 he is permanently working together with Jean Sasportes, Geraldo Si, Chrystel Guillebeaud (Dance Theatre Pina Bausch). Concerts and live performences took place in Europe, the US, Canada and China, together for instance with Butch Morris, Aki Takase, Marc Charig, Evan Parker, Carlos Zingaro, Lou Grassi, Savina Yannatou, Tony Oxley, Paul Lytton.

Agustí Fernández was born in 1954 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, he studied in Palma's conservatory and extended his formation at the Darmstadt Summer Courses and with Iannis Xenakis among others. The discovery of two totemic figures of the avantgarde were important for his creative interests' orientation: Cecil Taylor in jazz and Iannis Xenakis in contemporary music. He has recognized very often that in his music there are influences from both jazz and contemporary music. From producing his first recording in 1985 ("Ardent" for solo piano) he released 12 CDs in different labels. His career as a soloist erupted in the II Biennial of Young Creative Artists in Thessaloniki (Greece) in 1987. From 1982 to 1998 he regularly collaborated with Carles Santos, participated in performances with artist Jordi Benito and wrote the music for a show-room of the Spanish fashion designer Antonio Miró. From 1989 to 1991 he has been musical director of the avantgarde TV program Glasnost (TVE), after composing "Aura", a piece for the Big Ensemble del Taller de Musics (Barcelona). In 1999 he took again this collaboration for a piece in hommage to the last victim of the Franco dictatorship, the anarchist Salvador Puig Antich, "Mil Veus" (One Thousand Voices). In the mid 90’s he was director of the Orquestra del Caos (Barcelona) and founder of the IBA (Improvisers of Barcelona Association - collective of improvising musicians and dancers). He has been director of IBA until 2001. From 2001 he teaches Improvisation at the ESMUC (Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya), becoming the first teacher of this subject in any official school or conservatory in Spain.