"Jean-Luc Guionnet is an elusive figure. A Parisian artist active in many fields (music, visual arts, cinema), he has mostly worked in electro-acoustics but also has a career in free improvisation, playing alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, church organ, and piano. He has collaborated with Éric La Casa, Éric Cordier, and André Almuro on tape music. His main free improv and jazz projects include Hubbub, Schams, Return of the New Thing, and the Joe Rosenberg quintet.

Guionnet made scientific studies before shifting to fine arts. He studied musique concrete under Iannis Xenakis and Michel Zbar, but also pursued studies in philosophy (esthetics) with Geneviève Clancy. His first works date from the late '80s and are mostly collaborations with filmmaker André Almuro (some have been issued by Ground Fault). Then came a lasting partnership with electro-acousticians Éric Cordier and Éric La Casa. Together they wrote the series "Afflux." Guionnet also produces the Ateliers de Création Radiophoniques ("creative radio workshops") for France Culture. His eclecticism has kept him at bay of recognition -- because to the eye of the press it strips him from some credibility and because running careers in philosophy (he was co-director for the review Terre des Signes from 1993 to 1996), painting (he exhibited from 1992 to 1997), and music simultaneously tends to be time-consuming.

The release of an eponymous CD by Dan Warburton's free jazz quartet Return of the New Thing in 1999 on the respected label Leo Records introduced Guionnet to a wider audience. Since then his activities as an improviser have constantly stretched toward the fringes of experimentalism. His participation in the French-Swiss group Hubbub and his duo with guitarist Olivier Benoit (&Un, 2002) follow the school of Berlin reductionism."

"Benjamin Duboc is a very strong voice on double bass, born 1969, studied with JF Jenny-Clark & Bernard Cazauran, and has played with many great musicians (as Ernest Dawkins, Bertrand Denzler, Roy Campbell, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Sabir Mateen, Byard Lancaster, Daniel Erdmann, Abdelahaï Bennani, Michel Doneda, Daunik Lazro, Sunny Murray, John Betsch...). And also with Henry Grimes for a great duet in Paris. He leads the "Nuts" quintet with Itaru Oki & Rasul Siddik on trumpets, & Makoto Sato & Didier Lasserre on drums. He plays in "The fish" with Jean-Luc Guionnet on alto sax & Edward Perraud on drums (double cd on Ayler Records) and Rocks in the Sea with Mario Rechtern, Eric Zinman and Didier Lasserre. Benjamin has a beautiful and big sound, you really feel the ground while hearing him... it's somethin' ! He also is recorded on Amor Fati, Futura Marge, Creative sources, le petit label, sansbruit."

"Edward Perraud born in Nantes in 1971

Percussionist, Drummer, composer, improviser and researcher.

He began playing guitar at the age of eight, then learned the trombone and classical percussion at the CNR of Rennes. After a master's degree in musicology at the University of Rennes, he joined the IRCAM doctoral program in 1996 with Hugues Dufour where he obtained a DEA (EHESS / ENS / IRCAM). He entered the CNSM of Paris in the class of Michael Levinas the same year where he obtains in 1998 a 1st prize of musical analysis.

Classical music, contemporary music, jazz (Daniel Humair for 3 years at the CNSM in Paris), Indian (he studied with Patrick Moutal and Ramon Lopez at the CNSM and then Calcutta with Biplab Battacharia at the tablas) Gilles Léothaud in ethnomusicology at the CNSM) and free improvisation, profoundly mark his percussionist play.

He is also a member of the improvised "Hubbub" ensemble with Frederic Blondy, Jean Sébastien Mariage, Bertrand Denzler and Jean-luc Guionnet since 1999. He also founds the duo BIG with his alter ego Frederick Galiay (electric bass) The duo bass / drums under multiple facets: Big drum & bass, Big world, Big Pop.

There are now fifty records on numerous labels worldwide (Germany, USA, Portugal, England, Switzerland, etc ...). He created his own label in 2005 (Quark-records) which today has more than twenty references. In 2008, he founded a duet with the singer Elise Caron: "Bitter Sweets" which explores all forms of improvisation possible in the most varied styles. In 2011, he formed his group: "Synaesthetic Trip" with Benoit Delbecq, Bart Maris and Arnault Cuisinier, his first group as a leader who will be unanimously acclaimed by critics. A second album of his quartet will be released in 2015.

For more than 20 years he has played with many European and American musicians such as Tony Malaby, Bruno Chevillon, Olivier Benoit, Sylvain Kassap, Yves Robert, Thomas de Pourquery (Supersonic), Beniat Achiary, Fred Frith, Paul Rogers, Donnet, Joelle Leandre, John Edwards, Johannes Bauer, Louis Sclavis, Claude Tchamitchian, Bernard Lubat, Michel Portal, Vincent Courtois, Daunik Lazro, Marc Helias, Joe Rosenberg, Project The Bridge by Alexandre Pierrepont which promotes the exchange between American and French musicians.

Das Kapital (Daniel Erdmann, Hasse Poulsen, Edward Perraud) founded in 2001 (Concerts in Russia, Mexico, Honduras, Salavador, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Denmark, Germany ...), which won the prize for the best Jazz record of 2011 in Germany (Preiss der deutsche Kritik) with his homage to composer Hanns Eisler.

He obtains with Thomas de Pourquery Supersonic as drummer and for his label Quarkrecords the price of the disc of jazz of the year 2014 to the victories of the music.

In autumn 2014 he was called by the actor Philippe Torreton with whom they duet the show "Mec" in tribute to Allain Leprest.

Supporting self-giving, he claims a journey away from the chapels where everything must be possible. He has been a photographer and has been exhibiting for several years (Caen, Tours, Nantes ...)"