"Luc Houtkamp. Born 1953, Den Haag, The Netherlands; composer, alto and tenor saxophones, computers, electronics.

Luc Houtkamp is a composer who bridges the gap between different worlds of music. Having a background in jazz & improvised music as a saxophone player, his musical goal is to establish a continuum between improvisation and composition in which the difference between the two dissolves.

With the aid of computers and live electronics as well as various forms of music notation his compositions are highly personal in both sound and concept. Stylistic freedom is not a post-modern cliché, but based on his belief that musical style is secondary in importance and they're to serve the expressive quality of the music itself. His main interest in his pieces is the way in which the musicians play together, and how this can be directed by means of composition and the use of computers.

After a long-standing career as an improvising musician, Houtkamp established his own POW Ensemble in 2002. Being a flexible unit of musicians with musical backgrounds in jazz, rock, electronic and contemporary music, it soon became the ideal body for the performance of his own composition.

In 2014, Houtkamp moved to the island of Malta, where he soon became integrated in the local new music scene. He now mainly concentrates on composition."

Alex Maguire, piano. "b. 6 January 1959, Croydon, Surrey, England. Maguire remembers improvising at the piano before he received any lessons, which began at the age of eight. He studied music at the University of London and gained a BA degree; he also took lessons from Wanda Jeziorska, Andrew Ball, and Howard Riley. He names as his inspiration a number of respected figures in the free improvising scene, such as Tony Oxley and Evan Parker, as well as jazz players Cecil Taylor and Eric Dolphy. Maguire says he is interested in 'pre-literate music, anything original rather than imitative (irrespective of idiom)'. He has studied with classical composers John Cage and Michael Finnissy and his arsenal of techniques and figures, which stretch from avant garde classical piano to jazz, from kwela to R&B, has made him much in demand. His sympathy as an accompanist is only matched by his imagination, perverse and frequently humorous. He formed a partnership with drummer Steve Noble and played with him at Company Week 1989. He has also worked with Tony Oxley's Celebration Orchestra and Sean Bergin's MOB groups, and toured with his own nine-piece, the Cat O' Nine Tails, featuring drummer Louis Moholo and saxophonist Alan Wilkinson. Of particular note are his appearances on recordings by reed player Michael Moore, 1999's Mt. Olympus and 2001's White Widow. Maguire also plays with Elton Dean (saxophone), Fred T Baker (bass) and Liam Genockey (drums) in the free jazz quartet Psychic Warrior."