"Paul Dunmall was born 1953, Welling, Kent; saxophones, clarinets, bagpipes, miscellaneous wind instruments.

As told to Watson (1989), Paul Dunmall was a working class lad from Welling who left school at 15 and spent two years repairing instruments at Bill Lewington's shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. He turned professional at 17 and, following two years touring Europe with a progressive rock band (Marsupilami), joined the Divine Light Mission, a spiritual movement led by Guru Maharaj Ji and moved from London to an ashram in America. He told Isham (1997), 'I moved to an ashram full of musicians - a music ashram - but it was still spiritual practice. That gave me a spiritual understanding through meditation, Coltrane's music, and all the rest of it, led me to that, and that's been a fundament in my life ever since - that I can actually sit down and meditate and forget my body. I realise how important meditation is in my life... but I don't do it so much these days.' During the three years he lived in America, Dunmall played with Alice Coltrane (in a big band with the Divine Light Mission) and toured for twelve months with Johnny 'Guitar' Watson.

Back in England, he played with Danny Thompson and John Stevens as well as folk musicians Kevin Dempsey, Martin Jenkins and Polly Bolton and then, in 1979 he became a founder member of Spirit Level (Tim Richards, piano; Paul Anstey, bass; Tony Orrell, drums), staying with the group until 1989. During his time with Spirit Level, Dunmall joined the two-tenor front line group Tenor Tonic with Alan Skidmore (1985), played and broadcast with Dave Alexander and Tony Moore in the DAM trio (1986) and formed the Paul Dunmall Quartet with Alex Maguire, Tony Moore and Steve Noble (1986).

In 1987 Paul Dunmall joined the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, being a constant member and appearing on all their recorded output from that date onward. The following year the improvising collective quartet Mujician was formed by Keith Tippett, Dunmall, Paul Rogers and Tony Levin and has continued to be a regular performing, touring and recording group, sometimes augmented by other musicians. Dunmall has also played in a trio with Keith and Julie Tippetts and in Keith Tippett's big band Tapestry. Two other duos have also sprung out of Mujician: Dunmall with Tony Levin (two CD releases) and Dunmall in folk-influenced outings with Paul Rogers. Another regular playing partner throughout this period and up until the present includes Elton Dean.

In 1995, two trios were formed, the first with Oren Marshall, tuba and Steve Noble, percussion, the second with John Adams, guitar and Mark Sanders, percussion, these sometimes coming together as a quintet. More recently, Dunmall has played in another reeds/guitar/drums trio with Philip Gibbs and Tony Marsh and there appears to be regular crossover between all these players. The Paul Dunmall Octet was founded in 1997."

Dunmall also has released a large number of albums and a box set on the UK FMR label, in various configurations and instrumentation.

"Growing up in Kenya and Cumbria and starting out as a classical violinist, Alison Blunt has become an internationally respected artist creating music utilising or consisting of improvisation, Her solo and collaborative projects often reach beyond the music stage and involve film, text, dance, theatre and visual art.

Alison Blunt was born in Mombasa, Kenya, grew up in Nairobi and subsequently in the Lake District, UK. Finding her way from a classical violin training at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Alison's fascination with sound, motion and space has led her into national and international projects exploring the boundaries between art forms and genres and creating, performing and recording new music.

She has performed new and creative work in contrasting environments including Royal Albert Hall, BFI, Southbank Centre, Barbican, Sage Gateshead, Sesc Pompeia (Brazil), MS Stubnitz (Germany), Boat Ting, Colourscape Music Festival, Little Angel Theatre, Vortex Jazz Club, Cafe Oto, Colston Hall, Symphony Hall, Buckingham Palace Gardens, Latitude Festival, Bimhuis (Holland), SoundOut Festival and ACME (Australia), Musikhuset Aarhus (Denmark), St Magnus Festival & Mull Theatre (Scotland), European Storytelling Marathons (Holland & Belgium), Alte Gerberei (St Johann, Tirol), MS Stubnitz, Radialsystem, & B-Flat (Germany), Stockwerk Jazz Club (Styria), Wunderbar (South Island NZ) and The Kosmos (New Mexico USA) with a diverse array of creative artists including Apartment House, Apocryphal Theatre Company, Renee Baker, Julia Barclay-Morton, Barrel, Barcode Quartet, Cristiano Calcagnile, Lawrence Casserley, Viv Corringham, Guy Dartnell, John Edwards, Vinny Golia, HANAM Quintet, Elisabeth Harnik, Tristan Honsinger, Cat Hope, Birthe Jorgensen, Tony Marsh (RIP), Hannah Marshall, Lisa Mezzacappa, Gianni Mimmo, Phil Minton, Lode, London and Berlin Improvisers Orchestras, Evan Parker, Pierette Ensemble, Reciprocal Uncles, Gino Robair, Mark Sanders, Guillaume Viltard, Ove Volquartz and Michael Zerang.

Alison's activities range from composing for film, visual arts, theatre and contemporary dance productions to touring solo musical storytelling performances, from performances with interdisciplinary ensembles to arranging and recording children's albums, from gigging with rock bands to gigging with world folk music artists, from writing about new music to performing and recording new music. Alison resists being pigeonholed."