Neil Metcalfe is a UK flutist who has been a member of groups Evan Parker Octet, Garage, London Improvisers Orchestra, Paul Rogers Freedom Orchestra, The Dedication Orchestra, The Intuitive Art Ensemble, The Runcible Quintet, Transatlantic Art Ensemble, Trio F O, and Unlaunched Orchestra.

"Philipp Wachsmann. Born Uganda, 1944; violin, viola and electronics.

In the CD booklet to Gushwachs, John Corbett notes that Phillip Wachsmann came to free improvisation from a predominantly classical background, particularly via the contemporary experiments of "indeterminacy, graphic and prose-based scores, conceptualism and electroacoustics, listening to Webern, Partch, Ives, Berio and Varèse, reading 'Die Reihe' and interrogating the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic preoccupations of Western art music. Starting in 1969, Wachsmann was a member of Yggdrasil, an ensemble performing works by Cage, Cardew, Feldman, Ashley and others and in this group he used contact mikes on the violin and made his own electronic instruments, ring modulators and routing devices. Ironically, his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris (1969-1970) pushed him hard in the direction of free music. He recalls: 'Despite her neoclassical orientation, her insistence that composition is about the imagination of performance and its realisation, the live moment, and her stunning ability to make this happen was a powerful influence on me, steering towards 'performance' and therefore 'improvisation'.'"

Wachsmann moved from Yggdrasil to Chamberpot - recorded on Bead 2 - and shortly thereafter appeared on Tony Oxley's influential February papers, forward looking in the virtual 'industrial' orientation of some of the tracks, years before this became an accepted genre; the two musicians have continued to work together, in various groupings but notably in the percussionist's Celebration Orchestra. Philipp Wachsmann has also performed and/or recorded with: Derek Bailey's Company, e.g. on the recording Epiphanies; Georg Graewe; Barry Guy; Iskra 1903; King Übü Orchestrü; London Jazz Composers' Orchestra; Evan Parker, particularly as part of the Evan Parker Electronic Project; Quintet Moderne; Fred Van Hove's ML DD 4; Rüdiger Carl's COWWS (now CPWWS) Quintet; and Lines, with Martin Blume, Jim Denley, Axel Dörner and Marcio Mattos. He also plays as a solo musician.

Phillip Wachsmann also administers Bead Records."

"Emil Karlsen is a Norwegian improvising drummer currently based in the UK. Described as a "significant addition to the UK free jazz scene" and an "exceptional improv drummer", he's establishing himself on the improvised music circuit working the span from free improvisation to free jazz. Occupied with the exploring timbral possibilities of the drum kit, he performs with Philipp Wachsmann, Matthew Bourne, Phil Durrant, Maggie Nicols, Ed Jones, and the London Improvisers Orchestra to mention some."

"Pierre Alexandre Tremblay was born in 1975 in Montréal, Québec. He studied classical guitar and music theory from an early age, and as a teenager discovered bass guitar with Jean-Guy Larin, Sylvain Bolduc and Michel Donato. He also studied composition with Michel Tétrault, Marcelle Deschênes and Jonty Harrison. He earned his BA in music at the Université de Montréal in 1998 and his doctorate at the University of Birmingham in 2005. Since then, he has been teaching composition at the University of Huddersfield, in England.

In 1993, he explored improvised music with Facteur X, which led to the formation of the contemporary jazz ensemble [iks] in 1996. He directed this ensemble for 11 years, recording seven albums, touring Europe and North America and spending three months in Senegal for a cultural exchange with traditional West African musicians. This journey was chronicled in Étienne Deslières�s documentary film Le journal de sable.

He is currently collaborating on a variety of projects, playing bass guitar and manipulating sound on a laptop. He is a member of the contemporary jazz trio ars circa musicæ with Nicolas Stephan (saxophone) and Sébastien Brun (drums and machines), and the duet de type inconnu with Sylvain Pohu (guitar and laptop). He also works on pop music projects in studio as producer and bass guitar.

Tremblay is now working on hybridizing his aesthetic approaches, which he feels complete each other, into a single, coherent poetic language. He composes fixed media, instrumental and mixed music, sometimes integrating video, improvisation and real-time processing.

As a composer, he is fascinated by the listener�s experience rather than the process of creation. He considers the perception of form extremely important, and gives ample room to the emotional content, the poetic impact of the music.

He also programs sound processing software, mostly using Max/MSP, and freelances as artistic and technical director for contemporary music projects. He devotes the rest of his time (sic) to reading, photography and his family. Founder of the no-tv collective, he does not own a functioning television set."