"Niklas Barnö

Probably the best trumpeter player from Sweden.

Best, just simply because he is the musician most far away from defining something with being best, or worse for that part.

Pure honesty, in its best way. Or worse way. As honest is neither good or bad.

Niklas is. And is becoming.

Niklas is human. This is heard in his playing; the haunting crescendo of thoughts, spanning over 50.000 years, blown out through the mouthpiece of his trumpet.

Why? What? Who? How? Now?

He is his own foghorn (Mistlur). Clearing out the dim and artificial with ignited instinct.

He is the leader of the herd of musicians, Je Suis!. And active in groups like Kege Snö, Snus, Se&Hör...

Niklas Barnö and Joel Grip has known each other since they learned how to crawl musically and have been crucial for the development of their music as heard playing together as well as in the music organized together; Umlaut Records Sweden and unique festival Hagenfesten in Dala-Floda."

"For a number of years now, energetic double bassist, filmmaker and producer Grip has played an important role for the new scenes of improvised music in Europe. As founder of Umlaut Records, he opened up for creative forms of organizing collectives of musicians and promoting their music internationally. Since 2003 he has been one of the main organizers of Hagenfesten in Dala-Floda, Sweden, a stand-alone festival, and quite frankly possibly the most pleasant venue for free improvised music not only in Sweden but in the whole of Europe. Few other places offer quite the same endearing combination of sophisticated musical risk-taking, and up-beat, social get-together. GripÕs musicianship is informed by a similar knack for welding musical sophistication with social communication, often with an analog film camera at hand. With a handful of short films Joel Grip met mexican filmmaker Mauricio Hern‡ndez and shortly the film production company Umlicht was established. They are right now working on their third and forth feature film together. Umdicht is amplifying the pencil of Joel GripÕs hand, partly through the irregular issue of Lšsa Blad and partly in the future release of books."

"Didier Lasserre was born in Bordeaux, France, 1971. Started the drums at the age of sixteen, in order to live something else. After learning some drums rudiments in the local music school, he works essentially in autodidact, in order to find his own voice. Teaches drums and leads improvision workshop. Works with painting, poetry, dance, super8, photography. Has played through Europe, Russia, Argentina. Has recorded around 30 records (Amor fati, Dark Tree records, Ayler records, Improvising beings, No business records...)

BANDS: Solo (drums or percussion); "Ceremony" with Jean-Luc Cappozzo; "Ici en deux" with Michel Doneda; "Out !" with Jean-Luc Guionnet; "Soft Eyes" with Raymond Boni; "Hors ciel" with Beñat Achiary; "Twigs" with Thierry Waziniak; "Pourtant les cimes" with Daunik Lazro & Benjamin Duboc; "Noise Poetry" with Mathias Pontevia & David Chiesa; "The rich horn" with Paul Rogers & Jean-Luc Cappozzo; Trio with Jean-Luc Cappozzo & Daunik Lazro ( cd on Ayler records, 2017); Group4 with Jean-Luc Guionnet, David Chiesa & Lionel Marchetti); "Délivrance" (Cie Translation); "Ensemble UN" "