"Michel Houellebecq born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems, and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker, and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Houellebecq published his first novel, Whatever, in 1994. His next novel, Atomised, published in 1998, brought him international fame as well as controversy. Platform followed in 2001. He has published several books of poetry, including The Art of Struggle in 1996.

An offhand remark about Islam during a publicity tour for his 2001 novel Platform led to Houellebecq being taken to court for inciting racial hatred (he was eventually cleared of all charges). He subsequently moved to Ireland for several years, before moving back to France, where he currently resides. He was described in 2015 as "France's biggest literary export and, some say, greatest living writer." In a 2017 DW article, he is dubbed the "undisputed star, and enfant terrible, of modern French literature".

In 2010, he published The Map and the Territory, which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt. In 2015, his next novel, Submission, sparked another controversy for its depiction of Islam. He was also recently accused of plagiarism concerning Submission. Annihilation was published in 2022."

"Music composer, film director, multimedia author, sound designer, writer, Jean-Jacques Birgé considers music essentially in the audio-visual relationship, or at least in its confrontation with other forms of artistic expression.

Founder of Disques GRRR, he was one of the first synthesists in France in 1973, and with Un Drame Musical Instantané the precursor of the return to the cine-concert in 1976. If his first electronic work dates from 1965, he composes as well for symphonic orchestras that he improvises freely with musicians from the most diverse backgrounds. For his "radiophonic" creations and his multimedia shows (live zapping on the big screen, fireworks, choreographies...), improvisation and preliminary writing merge, the original electroacoustic treatments are integrated with traditional instruments to create evocative musical fictions that he calls musique à propos.

From 1995, he became one of the most popular sound designers in multimedia and a specialist in interactive musical composition, seeking to deepen the effects of meaning and develop an ever-wider range of emotions. As part of his work on major exhibitions, he recently worked at the Louvre Museum, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, the Grand Palais, the Panthéon, the Palais de Tokyo, the ZKM...

Alongside around fifty vinyls and CDs, his website drame.org offers 105 unreleased albums (191 hours!) for free listening and downloading.

He has been running a daily, activist and supportive blog for 20 years and gives conferences on the relationship between sound and image."

"Bernard Vitet (26 May 1934 - 3 July 2013) was a French trumpeter, multi-instrumentist and composer, co-founder of the first free jazz band in France (1964) together with François Tusques, Michel Portal Unit (1972) and Un Drame Musical Instantané with Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé in 1976.

Born in Paris, France, Vitet was involved in the early fusion of jazz and contemporary music with Bernard Parmegiani and Jean-Louis Chautemps. In the 1960s, he accompanied singers such as Serge Gainsbourg, Barbara, Yves Montand, Claude François, Brigitte Bardot, Marianne Faithfull, Colette Magny, and Brigitte Fontaine. He played with jazz musicians such as Lester Young, Archie Shepp, Anthony Braxton, Don Cherry, Chet Baker, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Steve Lacy, Gato Barbieri, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Martial Solal. In his early years, he performed with Django Reinhardt, Gus Viseur, Eric Dolphy, and Albert Ayler.

Under his own name he recorded Surprise-partie avec Bernard Vitet (on trombone!), La Guêpe on texts by Francis Ponge, Mehr Licht!, and about 200 other records with the aforementioned, plus Jean-Claude Fohrenbach, Georges Arvanitas, Sunny Murray, Michel Pascal, Alan Silva, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Hubert Rostaing, Alix Combelle, Ivan Jullien, Christian Chevalier, Jef Gilson, Jack Diéval, Jac Berrocal, Hélène Sage and 17 albums with Un drame musical instantané. In 1995, he co-signs the songs of Carton with Birgé, with whom he collaborates on music for films, exhibitions, and CD-Roms.

Vitet invented instruments such as a reed trumpet, a multiphonic French horn, a variable tension double-bass, the dragoon which is a giant balafon with frying pans and flower pots keyboard, a clever system of modal clocks, and astonishing musical objects for Georges Aperghis, Tamia, and Françoise Achard. Besides trumpet, he sang and played flugelhorn, piano and violin.

He composed theatre music for Jean-Marie Serrault, and for the films (Les coeurs verts by Édouard Luntz, L'ombre de la pomme by Robert Lapoujade with Jean-Louis Chautemps, Bof by Claude Faraldo in collaboration with Jean Guérin, and La femme-bourreau by Jean-Denis Bonan.

From 1976 to 2008, he devoted himself primarily to Un Drame Musical Instantané with Jean-Jacques Birgé, improvising and composing hundreds of pieces together, experimental essays as well as symphonic pieces, songs as well as music for films. Un D.M.I., as a trio or with their 15-piece orchestra, presented multimedia shows involving cinema, video, literature, dance and new technologies."