Ballrogg + Ivar Grydeland

Very much in demand as two of Norway's newest jazz innovators, Klaus Ellerhusen Holm (sax and clarinet) and Roger Arntzen (double bass) formed the duo Ballrogg to explore the acoustic extremities of their instruments. Involved in a range of diverse projects outside the duo, they bring a virtuosic range to Ballrogg's singular sound, creating soundscapes that are deeply disturbing and, at times, stunningly beautiful.

After recently joining forces with the great Norwegian guitar and pedal steel guitar player Ivar Grydeland (Huntsville, Dans Les Arbres, Hanne Hukkelberg), this group is expanding their cinematic sound universe into grand territories, offering a musical lookout to some truly monumental moments.

Ballrogg

Ivar Grydeland

Seijiro Murayama + Takahiro Kawaguchi

Although they now play together in the group Off Cells (with Taku Unami and Utah Kawasaki), Seijiro Murayama and Takahiro Kawaguchi have followed very different trajectories to reach where they are today.

Murayama has been active on the worldwide stage as a percussionist and drummer since the 70s, playing regularly with the likes of Fred Frith, Tom Cora, Keiji Haino and Benjamin Thigpen through the 80s and 90s.

Kawaguchi began his sonic explorations in his native Osaka, using live performance as an opportunity to present his evolving installation-style pieces. With everyday objects (like electric motors, scrunched plastic bags and ceiling fans) or simply using the acoustics of the space as his canvas, his performances sometimes resemble four or five science experiments happening all at once.

These two conjoined will be something extraordinary indeed.

Seijiro Murayama

Takahiro Kawaguchi

Daysuke Takaoka (tuba) + Darren Moore (drums, from Singapore)

After giving us a dose of seizure-inducing sight and sound with his unit Black Zenith last year, Singapore-based sound artist Darren Moore is back in Japan to play some no-nonsense drums.

Teaming up with mercurial tuba leviathan Daysuke Takaoka (who now plays regularly with sax legend Akira Sakata) we can look forward to some precarious musical mastery of the highest order.

Bring a helmet, goggles, and a map to find your way home after your mind is completely blown.

Daysuke Takaoka on Myspace

Darren Moore

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.