John Butcher's playing ranges through free improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked saxophone pieces and work with live electronics, amplification and feedback. He is well known as a solo performer, releasing 5 CDs of solo music. He started playing the saxophone whilst studying physics, but left academia in 1982 (after finishing a doctorate on charmed quarks) and went off with music - working with Chris Burn, John Russell, Phil Durrant, Paul Lovens and Radu Malfatti. He joined, in 1991, what became the final version of John Stevens' Spontaneous Music Ensemble; has played in a number of Derek Bailey's Company Weeks, and has worked in many contexts with singer Phil Minton, bassist John Edwards and various US musicians - such as Gerry Hemingway, Gino Robair, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Michael Zerang. Electronic music was an early influence on his approach to saxophone playing, and has become explicit in his electromanipulation duo with Phil Durrant, and the Austrian group Polwechsel, which also collaborates with Christian Fennez. Other recent groups include, Thermal with EX guitarist Andy Moor & synthplayer Thomas Lehn - a sax/bass/drums trio with Fabrizio Spera & John Edwards - and duos with Steve Beresford (electronics), and Rhodri Davies (harp). As an improviser Butcher continues to play in many occasional, sometimes just one-off encounters ranging from large groups such as - Butch Morris' London Skyscraper and the EX Orkestra - to duo concerts with Fred Frith, Jin Hi Kim, Toshimaru Nakamura and Derek Bailey. www.johnbutcher.org.uk

Nate Wooley was born in 1974 in a Finnish-American fishing community, Nate has slowly moved eastward, first studying trumpet in Denver, Colorado, where he played with Fred Hess, Art Lande, and Jack Wright. He is now settled in Jersey City, New Jersey and performs regularly solo, in duos with Tim Barnes, Chris Forsyth, and Mike Pride, with his maximilist/minimalist trio Blue Collar (feat. Steve Swell/Tatsuya Nakatani), with his quartet (feat. Matt Moran, Reuben Radding, Take Toriyama), and with his varying symmetrical ensembles (double trio, double quartet, double quintet). He is also a lover of animals and children. www.natewooley.com

Alex Waterman studied cello at the New England Conservatory, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the United States. His main teachers were Andor Toth Jr., George Neikrug and Frances Marie Uitti. Master classes with Yo Yo Ma and Anner Bylsma. He received his Masters degree in composition and performance from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He is a founding member of the Plus Minus Ensemble, based in Brussels and London; specialized in avant-garde and experimental music. As improviser he works with the Henneman String Quartet, the Maartje ten Hoorn Quartet, Magpie Music and Dance Company, Trio Celine (with Eric Thielemans and Jean Yves Evrard), and with Yves de Mey in the duo Eavesdropper and Waterman. He also works with singer Ghalia Benali in her group playing traditional and modern Arabic music repertoire and with the Keith Rowe Elecotroacoustic Ensemble. He has written music for numerous dance productions including for NDTIII (Tanz in August 2002), Michael Schumacher (Heaven is a Radio Frascati 2002), Masako Noguchi (Knock, Japan Festival 2001), Katie Duck (Love Poems, The Kitchen, New York) and Steve Paxton (Kaai Theatre Improv Festival 2001). Alex has worked with musicians such as Richard Barrett, Keith Rowe, Axel Dorner, Tristan Honsinger, Ned Rothenberg, Mark Helias, Steve Heather, Cor Fuhler, Gert Jan Prins, Andy Moor and members of the Ex, Yannis Kyriakides, Mary Oliver, Michael Moore, Anthony Coleman, Phil Niblock, Pauline Oliveiros, Robert Ashley and Michael Finissy. He has performed as guest musician with numerous ensembles, including Trio Event Berlin, Champs d'Action, Q-O2, and Black Jackets Company. Waterman has also curated music in Musiclab at Les Bains::Connective in Brussels and this season is guest curating for the Kraakgeluiden series in the OT301 in Amsterdam.

Newton Armstrong is originally from Australia but currently resides in scenic New Jersey. He performs with a variety of electronic instruments, but is particularly interested in performing with those electronic instruments that can be configured to behave with a high degree of autonomy. silvertone.princeton.edu/~newton