"Katsura Yamauchi picked up his first saxophone in the early 1970s and was quickly drawn to modern jazz, avant-garde and free improvisation. Born in Beppu, far from the traditional creative centers around the bigger cities in Japan, Yamauchi was until recently relatively unknown, but has now shown himself to be one of the most unique musicians in Japan.

For years Katsura Yamauchi was sporadically active as both musician and concert organizer, and helped arrange performances in Japan for veteran musicians from both the USA and Europe, such as Derek Bailey, Tristan Honsinger and Milford Graves. Not until 2002 did he quit his regular job to dedicate himself fully to music. Yamauchi was influenced by the new experimental sounds coming from Tokyo, but had developed his own original style, mixing improvisation and minimalism with melodic elements. The music is at the same time challenging and easily accessible, unrecognizable and beautiful .

Katsura Yamauchi has released several solo CDs and recorded with Michel Doneda, Gunter Muller and Norbert Moeslang from Voice Crack and performed with Taku Unami, ISO, Misha Mengelberg, Tatsuya Nakatani, Sharif Sehnaoui, Jason Kahn, Otomo Yoshihide, sachiko M, Barre Phillips, Kim Dae-Hwan, Gino Robair, Toshinori Kondo, Yoshimitsu Ichiraku, Travassos, Toshimaru Nakamura, Seijiro Murayama, Han Bennink and many others.

In addition to extensive activity in Japan, Katsura Yamauchi has toured the USA and several times in Europe He has performed at the following festivals:. Musique Innovatrices 2005, Castello Canalis 2007, Beppu Contemporary Art Festival 2008, Ftarri Festival 2008, Amplify Festival 2008 and Asian Meeting Festival 2009."-Katsura Yamauchi website (translated by Google)

Ernesto Rodrigues has been playing the violin for 30 years and in that time has played all genres of music ranging from contemporary music to free jazz and improvised music, live and in the studio. His main interest shifted towards contemporary improvised and composed music. The relationship with Rodrigues' instruments is focused in sonic and textural elements. Electronic music was an early influence on Rodrigues' approach to violin playing, which challenges traditional romantic concepts of the violin/viola through use of preparations and micro tuning. Active in different settings on the Portuguese scene for free improvised music, both as a collaborator and in leading his own groups.Music for Dance, Cinema, Video and Performance. He created the record label Creative Sources Recordings in 1999, which mainly concentrates on releasing experimental and electro-acoustic music.

"Carlos Santos studied painting with António Sena (Ar.Co, 1988 -1992), worked in advertising for a period of time, but nowadays works as graphic designer in corporate identity, packaging, web and audio-video production. He started sound/music activities in 1989 when he formed the VITRIOL project with Paulo Raposo, a laboratory for experimental sound actions, in a first stage with studio work followed in 1994 by live output, mainly live electronics, concrete music with a improvised or graphic score oriented approach. Uses the laptop with software written in MaxMsp, small resonant objects, microphones and piezo elements to produce a music that deals with space and its sound characteristics. Interests in "soundscape" and field recordings are a huge part of his work, for piece preparation or just for archival purposes, Always recording, events, spaces or music. Multi-channel acusmatic music and radio pieces.

He presents himself solo in site-specific audio-video works, or in duos with João Silva (video, sound, photography), "Inhabitaded Spaces" with Ricardo Guerreiro (computer, mics), "Venús Pistolletto" with Emídio Buchinho (elec. guitar, mics, objects) and trios with Ernesto Rodrigues (violin) and Guilherme Rodrigues (cello) or ZNGR electroacustic trio with Carlos "Zíngaro and Emídio Buchinho. Member of several formations, "(Des)Integração" laptop ensemble (2001-2003) or in more electroacoustic sets, uses live-electronics and sampling which is the case of "Suspensão" septep, VGO, variable geometry orchestra and specially a trio close related to the "near silence" aesthetics, with Ernesto Rodrigues (violin, harp) and Guilherme Rodrigues (cello) with already several CD releases, always with at least one international improviser guest. Presented his work in Portugal, Spain, France, UK and Germany. Worked with artists from several media: dance, performance and video. Music and sound design for video and animation. Video and sound editing for comercial projects. Played live or in recording projects throughout the years with a lot of musician and sound artists. His sound work is documented in several CD releases. Belongs to the Granular board of directors, a portuguese association for experimental art and does the image of Creative Sources label. Broadcasts "Boca Doce" show at Rádio Zero (web) and other special shows. Workshops and seminars in digital audio manipulation, Maxmsp programming and sound art practise."

This album has been reviewed on our magazine:


The Squid's Ear!