"Martin Archer was born in Sheffield, England, in 1957. He started playing saxophone at age 15 and first got active on the Sheffield improvisational scene in 1973. In the early '80s, he recorded an LP with Bass Tone Trap, his first group. In 1983 he formed the saxophone quartet Hornweb, which, in ten years of existence, released three albums. It is during that time that Archer released his first solo album, Wild Pathway Favourites (1988) and founded the Discus label on which he since releases all his music.

In 1993, he disbanded Hornweb and turned to synthesizers and sequencers while shifting his activities from stage to studio. He developed a compositional approach in which he records improvisers soloing, then manipulates this raw material, combining it with electronics and structuring it into a whole new piece. This technique is illustrated on Wild Pathway Favourites, Ghost Lily Cascade (1996), and Pure Water Construction (with bassist Simon H. Fell, released in 1999). Later works such as Winter Pilgrim Arriving (2000) moved toward more constructed and less abstract pieces, even making room for melodies and rhythm tracks at times.

Apart from his solo work, Archer is also involved in Ask, a duo with guitarist John Jasnoch, and Transient v Resident, an ambient electronics project with Chris Bywater."-All Music, François Couture

"Martin Archer is a composer / improviser who is equally at home on stage or in the studio. His own distinctive saxophone playing is rooted in AACM jazz. Through his use of keyboards and electronics, and as a studio producer, he extends this interest into extended song form and leftfield rock music. He is also co-director of the uncategorisably avant choir Juxtavoices.

His principle music work is the Discus Music label, the imprint for his various releases, notably by the groups described below.

His current jazz based projects include Engine Room Favourites (current a 4 drummer, 14 piece big band), Story Tellers (6 piece group including shaman instruments alongside the conventional instruments), plus various ad hoc smaller groups. All of these are strongly aligned with AACM tradition and teaching.

Archer has a long running duo with veteran vocalist Julie Tippetts. Each of their highly acclaimed CD releases deliberately explores song from a different perspective - the duo aims to be truly progressive, and takes in elements from jazz, rock, soul and pure abstraction.

Archer's main live performance vehicle is the trio Inclusion Principle with Herve Perez and Peter Fairclough. The group operates in a space between electronics, nu-jazz, contemporary electroacoustic music and free improvisation. In performance you will hear pure jazz skill, electronic beats and areas of texture and abstraction all seamlessly woven into a fascinating and constantly shifting tapestry of sound.

The sprawling Orchestra Of The Upper Atmosphere was formed by Archer as an improvising rock group with shades of Terry Riley, Magma, Alice Coltrane and Sun Ra, very much in the progressive / krautrock tradition, and noted for its large scale string, horn and vocal arrangements.

Also in rock music, Archer is a member of the USA based heavier than plutonium prog / sludge / zeuhl group Combat Astronomy under the direction of Jamie Huggett.

Surprising, delighting and occasionally alarming audiences for a number of years now, Juxtavoices is a 30 piece choir for mainly untrained voices co directed by Archer with Alan Halsey which has racked up dozens of performances and issued three CDs.

This eclectic combination of sources and highly individual applications makes Archer a unique inhabitant of the school of English maverick composer / improvisers. "-Discus

"Graham Leslie Lionel Clark (born 16 December 1959) is an English jazz violinist based in Buxton, Derbyshire.

He also plays electric guitar. A freelance violinist in most styles of jazz, rock, blues and pop, he specialises in improvisation.

He worked with Daevid Allen from 1988 to 2014:[1][2]

August 1988-October 1989: with the Invisible Opera Company of Tibet
October 1989-December 1991: with Gongmaison
February 1992-December 1992: with Magick Brothers / Gong
December 1996 - 2014: with Magick Brothers

He has also worked with Andy Sheppard, Keith Tippett, Tim Richards, Phil Lee, Paz, Brian Godding, Elbow, Lamb, Bryan Glancy, Little Sparrow, Jah Wobble, Graham Massey, Louis Gordon and Liz Fletcher."

"Stephen Grew has been playing piano and electronic keyboards for 25 years. His music is completely improvised. He creates spontaneous compositions with other musicians in the heat of the moment. He also performs as a soloist. He is based in Lancaster, UK, and has toured extensively, touring and recording with many musicians from the free improvised scene here in Britain and abroad. Performing in Grutronic, a four piece electronic band, and Grew Trio, Grew Quartet and Grew & Grew. He has also performed with Evan Parker, Keith Tippett, Graham Clark, Pat Thomas, Howard Riley and many others. Long standing collaborators are his brother, Nicholas Grew, Richard Scott, David Ross and Philip Marks.

"I have devote all of my energies to making music, completely made in the moment, improvised. I play with some great musicians, Gulliver Maxwell an alto saxophone player and other Lancastrian players. My first band was with Steve Lewis and George McKay (Charivari) in 1995. I have toured consistently since 1996, in Grew Trio with the great Mancunian players, drummer Phillip Marks and sax/electronics player Richard Scott who I met through Steve Lewis in 1995. We have mainly performed in Britain but also performed in prestigious Modern music festivals in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Latvia and Canada. In 2000 Richard Scott left Grew trio and after a duo collaboration with Sheffield based sax/bassoon player Mick Beck, Mick joined Grew trio to form Grew Quartet in 2006, with Oxford based bass player Dominic Lash. At times I have had to work as a shop keeper, assembler of golf trolleys, gardener and fisherman. My current work takes me to working in Grutronic, (Myspace.com/grutronicmusic) with guests Evan Parker, Orphy Robinson, Paul Obermayer and Grew quartet, a recent Orchestral project with Nicholas Grew and duos featuring violinist Graham Clark, drummer Tony Bianco, Phillip Marks, and drummer / electronics musician David Ross all of whom are based outside of Lancaster. Our music comes out of a need to play music and communicate with sound at the moments of creating it, this process becomes very refined over many years. The long periods of time devoting the workman like instrumentalists approach to making this kind of music, creates a greater clarity of playing and composing, until a bit of magic conversation appears!"-Stephen Grew"

"Johnny Hunter is a northern UK-based drummer who comes from a background of both the Avant-Garde and the more mainstream Jazz. He has performed or recorded with such esteemed musicians as Benn Clatworthy, Mick Beck, Nat Birchall, Jamil Sheriff, Jamie Taylor, Pete Fairclough, Walt Shaw, Corey Mwamba, Steve Beresford, Graham Clark, Adam Fairhall and Steve Berry to name a few. He is also heavily involved in the Reggae and Dub scene.

He is currently playing with Misha Gray's Prehistoric Jazz Quintet, Liverpool-based group playing heavy modal Jazz inspired by John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and the like; Nat Birchall; Engine Room Favourites, AACM inspired Free Jazz; the Blind Monk Trio, sax/bass/drums trio playing heavy rootjazz; the Dub Jazz Soundsystem, a mash-up of heavy Dub and psychedelic modal Jazz; Skamel, a Ska/Jazz/Dub ensemble inspired by the French Reggae group Raspigaous; his own "chordless" quartet set up to explore the freedom and limitations of having no chordal instrument; among several other projects. He also runs the Jazz jam night at Matt & Phred's Jazz Club."