Robert Piotrowicz (Poland)

One of the most prolific artists on the Polish experimental improv scene, Robert Piotrowicz is involved in a range of musical activity, from electro-acoustic studio and theater composition to interdisciplinary art projects and sound installations. As an instrumentalist and composer, he has collaborated with a number of aural mavericks, including the likes of Kevin Drumm, Tony Buck, Lasse Marhaug, Xavier Charles and Zbigniew Karkowski.

He continues to tour extensively, playing major festivals in both Europe and North America as a soloist and collaborator.

Robert Piotrowicz

Anna Zaradny (Poland)

Saxophonist, improvisor, composer and sound artist, Poland's Anna Zaradny has used her classical training to create artistic work in many fields. As an instrumentalist and composer, she uses extended saxophone technique in tandem with with computer-based structure to create everything from purely acoustic improvisation to complete compositions in the electronic medium. As a visual artist, she works with photography and video to create abstract pieces with multiple layers of form and meaning.

In her work, she tours extensively and has collaborated with artists such as John Butcher, Tony Buck, and John Hegre, while working closely with Robert Piorowicz at home on the Musica Genera label and annual festival.

Anna Zaradny

Ryusenkei Body + Hiroki Chiba

Forming in 2003, Ryusenkei Body has been able to combine a complex approach to musical form with a style that is genre-defying and unexpected. The band takes a binary approach to composition and performance, stepping outside of the musical form to both contradict yet interact with the original material. Stark and challenging, their performances are dense in texture with fractured rhythms that bring to mind elements of hip hop (think Prefuse 73), electronica (think mego) and great free music.

On this evening, they will be joined by special guest and mercurial bass/electronics wizard Hiroki Chiba (Isolation Music Quartet, They Live, Hose II etc.) for an unprecedented matchup.

Ryusenkei Body

Hiroki Chiba

JIM2ACHIN.E Performance Group (France)

Interweaving sound, movement and image in unexpected ways, Sylvain Duigou, Yumiko Shiono and Laurent Rodriguez present the audience with absurd and dada-esque performances, enacted with beauty, humour, and poetic evanescence.

With a range of influences, the group manages to pull disparate ideas into new forms of interactive media, striking a peculiar balance between deconstructionist abstraction and primordial weirdness. Lovely stuff indeed.

Sylvain Duigou

Yumiko Shiono

Laurent Rodriguez

JULIETTA (visuals)

Using an array of visual sources, JULIETTA is a VJ unit coming from the joined forces of Yuki Ohta (aka De-R) and parhelion (aka JULIA). Involved with everything from club music to the experimental, the unit puts together specially commissioned works, as well as improvising visuals in a live setting.

Using minimal creations from software, plus images jumping from their collection of 9 DVD players, JULIETTA has been much in demand in Tokyo for their decidedly unique yet supple imagery.

JULIETTA

Evil Penguin

Grand wizard of vinyl and interstellar treasure hunter, the Evil Penguin extracts the tastiest gems from his cosmic vat of recordings long forgotten. Pure listening pleasure.