"Pierre Borel is an improviser, composer and saxophonist born in Paris in 1987. He is working in field of improvised and experimental music. He lives in Berlin since 2006, and has performed in several european countries, Japan and USA. He attained a Masterdegree in Jazz Institut Berlin in 2008, and studies philosophy in Paris. Together with Florian Bergmann and Hannes Lingens, he is running the Umlaut Berlin Festival (1rst edition in 2009), and he is part of the european collectif Umlaut."

"Axel Dörner (born 26 April 1964 in Cologne, Germany) is a German jazz musician (trumpet and piano) and composer.

Dörner studied piano in the Dutch town Arnhem (1988-89) and at the Music Academy in Cologne (1989-1996). From 1991 he studied trumpet with Malte Burba, and during his studies he collaborated with trumpeter Bruno Light in the "The Street Fighters Duo". At this time he also joined the ensembles "The Street Fighters Quartet" and "The Street Fighters Double Quartet" together with Matthias Schubert, Bruno Leicht, and Claudio Puntin. In addition the "Axel Dörner Quartet" was initiated (with Frank Gratkowski, Hans Schneider and Martin Blume). With saxophonist Matthias Petzold. he participated on the albums Lifelines and Psalmen Und Lobgesänge.

Dörner has resided in Berlin since 1994, and occurs in the most diverse settings like "The London Jazz Composers Orchestra" and with "Hedros" (together with Mats Gustafsson, Günter Christmann, Barry Guy and others). Since then he has contributed on more than 50 album recordings.

Dörner is distinguished mainly by his versatility. He bouth play the more traditional Bebop, just like he fits in to classic Free Jazz or electronic music. He playd with Otomo Yoshihide at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in 2005. Dörner play both solo concerts and collaborates with his trio "TOOT" (together with Phil Minton and Thomas Lehn) and "Die Anreicherung" with Christian Lillinger, Håvard Wiik and Jan Roder, and in Ken Vandermarks "Territory-Band". Dörner is an integral part of the Berlin scene of experimental new improvisational music. Dörner was given special attention for his interpretation of all compositions by Thelonious Monk, with the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and his own band "Die Enttäuschung" released on a three CD album (Monks Casino, Complete 2005)."-Wikipedia

"Simon Sieger, born in France in 1986, is brought up in a family where jazz and improvised music, as well as literature and philosophy are the main interests. Taught by his father, saxophonist and improviser Pascal Sieger, he rapidly becomes a talented pianist, oriented towards free jazz and the exceptions of jazz history like Monk, Tristano, Sun Ra, or Cecil Taylor and very influenced by the early piano styles of James P. Johnson and Pete Johnson. He also plays the trombone, influenced by George Lewis, Albert Mangelsdorff and Gary Valente.He starts working with Thomas Weirich in 2006 and Raphael Imbert in 2010, and extends his field of play to contemporary music, electronic music and fabrication of instruments. In 2011, he completes the jazz course in Conservatory of Marseille, and is expecting a grant for his doctorate in 2012, which will be a re-writing of the multiple histories of improvisation. His style is diverse and very open to new ways of expression, like the one through the O'Max software, developed by the IRCAM. He recently recorded a trio with Thomas Weirich (guitar) and Famoudou Don Moyé (Drums) in the album "Improvisation Music Vol. 1", and with Raphael Imbert for his album "Heaven"."

"For a number of years now, energetic double bassist, filmmaker and producer Grip has played an important role for the new scenes of improvised music in Europe. As founder of Umlaut Records, he opened up for creative forms of organizing collectives of musicians and promoting their music internationally. Since 2003 he has been one of the main organizers of Hagenfesten in Dala-Floda, Sweden, a stand-alone festival, and quite frankly possibly the most pleasant venue for free improvised music not only in Sweden but in the whole of Europe. Few other places offer quite the same endearing combination of sophisticated musical risk-taking, and up-beat, social get-together. GripÕs musicianship is informed by a similar knack for welding musical sophistication with social communication, often with an analog film camera at hand. With a handful of short films Joel Grip met mexican filmmaker Mauricio Hern‡ndez and shortly the film production company Umlicht was established. They are right now working on their third and forth feature film together. Umdicht is amplifying the pencil of Joel GripÕs hand, partly through the irregular issue of Lšsa Blad and partly in the future release of books."

"Sven-Åke Johansson (born 1943 in Mariestad, living in Berlin since 1968) is a Swedish drummer and composer associated with free jazz and free improvisation. He was in the Globe Unity Orchestra and played with German reedist Alfred Harth and Belgian pianist Nicole Van den Plas in E.M.T.."