Newton Armstrong is a composer and improviser working with various electronic instruments. He has recently performed, recorded, or worked in some less specific capacity with Tim O'Dwyer, Cor Fuhler, Clayton Thomas, Chris Abrahams, Steve Heather, Joel Stern, John Butcher, Melissa Madden Gray and Chris Mann, among other interesting people. Originally from Melbourne, Australia, he currently resides in scenic New Jersey.
Alex Waterman is a classically trained experimental musician and improviser. Founding member of Plus Minus Ensemble (London and Brussels), he has also premiered numerous solo cello works, and is an active musician in the European improv and experimental scene. Alex has worked with musicians such as Richard Barrett, Keith Rowe, Axel Dorner, Ned Rothenberg, Gerry Hemingway Mark Helias, Steve Heather, Cor Fuhler, Gert Jan Prins, Andy Moor, Yannis Kyriakides, Mary Oliver, Michael Moore, Robert Ashley and Michael Finnissy.
Nate Wooley is an improvising trumpet player born in Clatskanie, Oregon. He has developed a unique voice that blends the influences of lower-case, free-jazz, contemporary classical, and noise musics organically. He has performed and/or recorded solo and with his own trio, Blue Collar, as well as with John Butcher, Anthony Braxton, Joe Morris, Alessandro Bosetti, Tony Buck, Chris Speed, Tony Malaby and others.
Dale Gorfinkel (vibes) is an active member of Sydney's improvised music community, playing regularly with Robbie Avenaim, Jim Denley, Clayton Thomas, Clare Cooper and members of The Splinter Orchestra. He also performs with Farfinkel Pugowski, the Darren Moore Trio, renowned jazz pianist Mike Nock and Museum of Fire (Australia's first free jazz covers band).
Michael Bullock (contrabass, feedback systems, digital video) is an active member of the Boston improvised music scene.
As a soloist, Bullock plays the contrabass like an empty wooden room creaking under its own weight. His performances are permeated by a precarious sense of timing reminiscent of Buster Keaton. He also plays the acoustic feedback of his bass and amplifier, sweeping the bass through the air to change the tone, and modulating it with test oscillators and tuning forks.
As a video artist, Mike has collaborated with artists from Hefty Records and from Vidvox LLC. His short video ³In/At Tension² has appeared at the 2:13 festival and Sync Festival, both in Athens, Greece (the latter festival also featured De La Soul, Mike¹s closest brush with Hip-Hop stardom so far).
His regular groups include his duo with cellist Vic Rawlings, The BSC, and rise set twilight. He has toured extensively as a soloist, frequently traveling with trumpeter Greg Kelley, and also tours Europe. He has collaborated with Lê Quan Ninh, Daniel Carter, Mazen Kerbaj, Christian Wolff, and Theodore Bikel.
His recordings appear on Kissy, Grob, Intransitive, CIMP, Emanem, Rounder and Naxos. In 2002 he founded Chloë, a label dedicated to experimental music. Plus One Events, an experimental music series, was founded in 2005 in collaboration with Linda Aubry.
Michael Evans is an improvising drummer /percussionist /
multi-instrumentalist and composer whose work investigates and embraces the
collision of sound and theatrics. As well as being a drumset player, his
work with unusual sound sources includes found objects, homemade
instruments, the theremin and various digital and analog electronics. He has
worked with a wide variety of musicians, performance artists, dancers and
comedians including Ron Anderson, Jeff Arnal, Audio Artists, Claire Barratt,
Jac Berrocal, James Chance, Combustible Edison, Lol Coxhill, Don Carlos
Garcia, EasSide Percussion, Roger Ely (the Devil's Chaueffeur), Nicolas
Dumit Estevez, Fast Forward(Gobo), Michael Gira (Angels of Light, Swans),
Gilbert Godfried, God is my Co-Pilot, Alexander Hacke(Einsturzende
Neubauten), Susan Hefner, Steve Horowitz's Code Ensemble, Jarboe (Swans),
Skip LaPlante, Lary Seven, Neil Leonard, Aimee Mann, Karen Mantler, Maxime
De La Rochefoucauld, Gordon Monahan, Eric Mingus, Evan Parker, William
Parker, Gino Robair, David Simons, Moe Staiano, Toronto Dance Theatre,
Stephen Vitiello, Jason Willet and Peter Zummo. He was selected for a
composers' fellowship to Music/ Omi 2001, part of the International Music
Colony at the Art Omi International Arts Center, in Ghent, N.Y. Other recent
activities include participation in Baltimore's 2003 High Zero Festival; an
impromptu performance series (October 2003) entitled "Purgatory", presented
by Alexander Hacke (Einsturzende Neubauten) in Berlin, Germany; and
Birmingham Alabama's Improv Festival, produced by LaDonna Smith. He is an
ongoing member of the groups: Yvette Perez's Birdbrain, Peter Zummo's
Eastern Orbit, EasSide Percussion (with James Pugliese and Christine Bard),
Music for Homemade Instruments: directed by Skip LaPlante, Gobo (duo w/ Fast
Forward) and composes music for Susan Hefner and Dancers."Percussionist Jeff Arnal's balletic sense of time and imaginative deployment of colour have combined into a highly original concept" Philip Clark, The Wire. Arnal frequently performs and collaborates with a wide range of musicians and choreographers in the U.S. and Europe. He studied music at Bennington College with Charles Gayle and Milford Graves receiving an MFA in 2000. A native of Georgia, Arnal moved to Baltimore in 1991 to attend the Peabody Conservatory, and later study composition with Stuart Saunders Smith. Recent performances include Ausland, deSingel, German Nordwestradio, Music at the Anthology, Musikerinitiative Bremen and Roulette. He can be heard on a number of independent record labels including Cadence Jazz, Leo, Oaksmus and Public Eyesore. Fall 2005 CD releases include Transit on Clean Feed, duet with Michael Evans on C3R and Tripwire on Creative Sources. He is a co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Improvised and Otherwise Festival and curates On the Way Out, a monthly new music series in Brooklyn, NY.
Current projects include Static Decoy with choreographers Estelle Woodward and Alison Robinson; Rara Avis with Gordon Beeferman and Seth Misterka (Generate 2004); Mogami with Ryan Smith (Public Eyesore 2004); JUB-KAT with Briggan Krauss and Tomas Ulrich; Tripwire with John Hughes and Lars Scherzberg (Oaksmus 2000, Generate 2002, Creative Sources 2005); Duet with Dietrich Eichmann (Leo 2004); Percussion duet with Michael Evans (C3R 2005); Fulminate Quartet with Michael Evans, Anders Nilsson and Ken Filiano; Transit with Seth Misterka, Reuben Radding and Nate Wooley (Clean Feed 2005); Spy Satellite with John Dierker and Jonathan Vincent (Generate 2002). Other collaborators include Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Aaron Dugan, Kermit Driscoll, Chris Forsyth, Ben Hall, Mary Halvorson, Okkyung Lee, Liudas Mockunas, Ras Moshe, Jessica Pavone, Kevin Uehlinger and Hannes Wienert.