Nobunaga Ken + Scott Jordan + Ryo + Kazuyuki Tomioka

With subtle acoustic instrumentation and refined musical sensibilities, this group of improvisors explore lush textures and meditative rhythm, leaning on influences from traditional Japanese music and free improv.

The group's membership includes Nobunaga Ken (Tetragrammaton, HissPiss) on taisho koto and percussion, Scott Jordan on koto and bowed koto, Ryo on koto, shamisen and voice, and features Kazuyuki Tomioka performing Noh recitation and dance.

Nobunaga Ken

Scott Jordan

Ryo

LVSXY (Clayton Thomas + Clare Cooper - Australia/Germany)

An improvised duo of extreme resonance, LVSXY combines the ethereal qualities of the Chinese zither with the tonal depth of the double bass, taking both instruments into extended territories of sound and texture.

Clare Cooper and Clayton Thomas have made music together since 2000 in groups such as the Splinter Orchestra and Hammeriver. After making the move to Berlin from their native Australia, they also began curating a number of festivals, most notably the 'NOW now festival' which started in 2001.

Clayton Thomas

Clare Cooper

Iron Egg (Darren Moore + Tim O'Dwyer + Brian O'Reilly Australia/US/Singapore)

Based in Singapore, Darren Moore (laptop/percussion), Tim O'Dwyer (saxophone) and Brian O'Reilly (bass/electronics/moving images) work with minimal sound and image to achieve subtle passages of shadowy texture, constructing a world that is both haunting and beautiful.

Using extended instrumental techniques combined with live electronics, the group has developed a controlled improvisational approach that produces ethereal soundscapes that seem at moments to be frozen in time.

Iron Egg

DUEL (Tabata Mitsuru + Keiko Higuchi + Astro + Kelly Churko)

With a group made up of members from Zeni Geva, 0.03, C.C.C.C. and AKBK, you might expect a marauding onslaught of speed, grind, skree and general noise terror. Not so. With superlative musicianship, the mood can be transported anywhere, and these four musicians have found equal footing in a meeting place of dreamscape deliquescence and seismic soundscapes.

The density of their performance is a testament to the heaviness of the players involved, and although this collaboration is a full-grown wooly mammoth, you might find it carefully tiptoeing through the tundra.

Tabata Mitsuru

Keiko Higuchi

Astro

Kelly Churko

Bas van Huizen (visuals)

Originally from Nijmegen (the Netherlands), Bas van Huizen is a sound and visual artist who creates works of carefully layered texture and subtle compositional form. On this evening, he will be working with realtime visuals taken from water sources, augmenting several of the night's performances.

In addition to his creative activity, he is also jointly runs Etherkreet records, a label focusing on electroacoustic and improvised music.

Etherkreet

Evil Penguin

Master of disguises, Mexican top-hats, ambient rockabilly to minimal Hawaiian Kumulipo chants, the Evil Penguin poses the primordial question of evanescence against a backdrop of New Wave folk. Celebratory, subliminal, moment-to-moment. A Tasmanian treasure with a penchant for open spaces.