"Jürg Wickihalder was born in 1973 in the little Alpine town of Glarus in central Switzerland. Unlikely as it may seem, in the '80s Glarus was home to a remarkable community of musicians and a lively jazz scene, where Wickihalder as a teenager already met such well-known musicians as Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), Benny Bailey, or Ray Anderson. While still in high school in the '90s, Wickihalder commenced his studies in jazz composition and saxophone with Urs Leimgruber at the Jazz School Lucerne. In 1992, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts (USA), where he studied with Joe Viola and George Garzone at the Berklee College of Music and developed a strong and widely heard voice, particularly on soprano saxophone. After his return to Europe, Wickihalder continued to deepen his musical language by studying with American soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 2000 and expanded his knowledge of the art of great jazz composers such as Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus.

Since 1996, Wickihalder has mainly worked as the leader of his own groups performing his compositions. The Jürg Wickihalder Overseas Quartet (CD "Furioso," Intakt 153), the Jürg Wickihalder European Quartet feat. Irène Schweizer (CD "Jump," Intakt 194), and the Jürg Wickihalder Orchestra (CD "Narziss & Echo," Intakt 209). He regularly plays in duos with pianist Chris Wiesendanger (CD "A Feeling for Someone," Intakt 134) and Irène Schweizer (CD "Spring," Intakt 234).

BEYOND, a trio with Barry Guy on bass and Lucas Niggli on drums (CD "Beyond," Intakt 277) is Wickihalder's most recent project, receiving considerable critical acclaim.

Wickihalder tours worldwide and is a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra (GB) and the Uli Gumpert Quartett (GER), among other groups. He is a winner of numerous awards, including composition and soloist awards from the Dienemann Foundation, made the dean's list at the Berklee College of Music, received the 18th Annual Student Award of the US music magazine Downbeat and has been performing and teaching as an official Selmer Paris Artist since 2006."

"Irène Schweizer (born 2 June 1941) is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, in 1941. She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvising Group, whose members include Lindsay Cooper, Maggie Nichols, Georgie Born and Sally Potter. She has also performed a series of duets with drummers Pierre Favre, Louis Moholo, Andrew Cyrille, Günter Sommer, Han Bennink, Hamid Drake, as well as in trio and quartet sessions with others, including John Tchicai, Evan Parker and Peter Kowald. With Yusef Lateef, Uli Trepte and Mani Neumeier she performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967. One of her most enduring collaborations is with the improvising musician Rüdiger Carl (de)."

"Fabian Gisler (born August 18, 1977 in Zurich ) is a Swiss jazz musician (double bass, composition).

Gisler began his musical career with the violin and then switched to the double bass. He studied at the professional department of the Bern Swiss Jazz School with Peter Frei, Reggie Johnson, Bert Joris, Rufus Reid and Andy Scherrer. He also completed Masterclass workshops with Ray Brown, George Gruntz, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano and George Mraz. Between 2000 and 2002 he was a member of the Klezmer band Kol Simcha, which toured Europe and America.

Gisler plays regularly with his own quartet and in numerous other formations, such as Jürg Wickihalder and Robert Lakatos. Since 2004 he belongs to the Trio Rusconi, for which he also composed. He has performed with Franco Ambrosetti, Gianni Basso, Bill Carrothers, Philip Catherine, Don Friedman, Dusko Goykovich, Tony Lakatos, Dado Moroni, Dick Oatt, Dré Pallemaerts, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gary Smulyan, Matthieu Michel, Makaya Ntshoko, Andy Scherrer, Roman Schwaller, Co Streiff, Nat Su, Kenny Werner and Nils Wogram.

Gisler won the new jazz generation contest in Bern in 1998. Also in the same year he received the advancement award of the generations international jazztreffen frauenfeld."

"Michael Griener, born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1968, began playing drums in 1982, lives in Berlin since 1994.

Under the influence of the HOHE-UFER-concerts initiated by Günter Christmann he became involved early on in the various forms of Jazztradition, Free Improvisation and New Music, which led to a longer collaboration with Christmann in his Vario-projects (a.o. C.I.M.-Festival Den Haag 1990, Moers-Festival 1992, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik1993).

He has worked frequently with dancers, actors and poets (most recently in a project on Paul Celan with German writer Oskar Ansull). His duo KIMMO ELOMAA with electronic wizard jayrope received a grant by the city of Berlin in 2002 Received the 1. price as "most creative soloist" at the "New German Jazz Award" in 2006 His current projects include a.o.:

Uli Gumpert Quartet, TGW (Thieke-Griener-Weber), a Duo with Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Lacy Pool, Squakk and Carl-Ludwig Hübsch' Primordial Soup Michael Griener teaches jazz drumming at the University for Music "Carl Maria v. Weber" in Dresden and jazz-history and rhythm at the Jazzschule Berlin."