Sean McCann was born in California in 1988 in a small beach town called Goleta. He now resides in Los Angeles. He has been publishing albums since 2007, utilising an array of instruments including violin, piano, & voice. His first fully realised album, Music for Private Ensemble (2013), found the artist multi-tracking and performing dozens of layers of instruments and sounds to form a one-man-orchestra. The logical followup album, Music for Public Ensemble (2016), lassoed in 30 other musicians to join and puzzle together a 2xLP of lush chamber works, choral pieces, & text-sound compositions.

The innovative, boundary-smashing work of Nicole Mitchell, whom Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak has hailed as the “greatest living flutist in jazz”, has contributed new life to Afrofuturism in the 21st Century. A voracious reader of science fiction since her youth (Afrofuturist author Octavia E. Butler in particular has exerted a heavy influence on her music), the musician, composer and educator has released a string of albums that fold themes centered around technology, spirituality, race and gender into profoundly exploratory jazz that oftentimes reaches far beyond the genre in which it is rooted. Her vast sound can and often does encompass contemporary classical, globally oriented fusion, gospel, spoken word, funk-inspired groove research and even brittle shards of avant-rock.

Leila Bordreuil is a Brooklyn-based cellist and composer working in the realm of improvisation, noise music, and sound art. The New York Times has described her work as “steadily scathing music, favoring long and corrosive atonalities”.

Bordreuil’s cello playing focuses on the inherent sonic qualities of her instrument, paying careful attention to timbre and texture. She challenges conventional cello practice through extreme extended techniques and imaginative amplification methods. Her composed works frequently incorporate sound-spatialization by way of site-specific pieces and multi-channel installations.

She has collaborated/performed with many artists such as Marina Rosenfeld, Eli Keszler, Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh, Toshimaru Nakamura, Lee Ranaldo, Bill Nace, Weasel Walter and Lea Bertucci. Her work has been showcased at The Whitney Museum, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, The Stone, Café Oto (London), All Ears Festival (Oslo), Ausland (Berlin), Ftarri (Tokyo) and many basements across the US. Leila Bordreuil is a 2017 MacDowell Fellow in Composition, was a visiting composer at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (2017), and an artist-in-residence at Issue Project Room (2016).

leilabordreuil.com

Zach Rowden (USA) deals with the acoustic and performative possibilities of the upright/electric basses. He is a soloist in Iancu Dumitrescu and the late Ana Maria Avram's Hyperion Ensemble. Current collaborators include Tyshawn Sorey, Paul Flaherty, Michael Foster's The Ghost, Robert Black, Chris Cretella, Matt Sargent. Charmaine Lee and Gus Caldwell.

Venues that have welcomed him include Harpa (Reykjavik), Romanian Radio Hall (Bucharest), Cafe Oto (London), Heimathafen Neukölln (Berlin), Issue Project Room (New York), Firehouse 12 (New Haven),  and Real Art Ways (Hartford).

https://zachrowden.bandcamp.com/

Vilhelm Bromander (1988) is a Swedish bass player and composer deeply entwined in the Stockholm experimental and free jazz scene. He can be heard in groups such as Svenska Folkjazzkvartetten, Christer Bothén 3,in duo with Fredrik Rasten and with Elin Forkelid plays for Trane among others.

Vilhelm has also worked a lot with solo double bass - where he directs his focus to acoustic details such as beating, common partials and difference tones – to hear what happens with our perception when we allow ourselves to be immersed in sound for a longer stretch of time. In January -22 he also debuted as a soprano saxophone player with his new chamber work, Aurora, that was released by warm winters ltd.

As an improviser he has played with musicians like Axel Dörner, Tisha Mukarji, Michael Thieke, Sten Sandell, Phil Minton, Mazen Kerbaj, Maria W. Horn, Christer Bothén, Katt Hernandez, Lisa Ullén, Henrik Olsson to name a few. He is also an active session musician and has played with Daniel Johnston, Sara Parkman, Saigon, Musette, Joe Davolaz, Rotem Geffen, Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation, The Tiny & Music Is The Weapon.

vilhelmbromander.com

Sarah Davachi (b. 1987, Calgary, Canada) holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Calgary, and a master's degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, California. As a composer of electronic and electroacoustic music, Davachi's compositional projects are primarily concerned with disclosing the antiquated instruments and forgotten sonics of a bygone era in analog synthesis, with concurrent treatment of acoustic sources – particularly organ, piano, strings, and woodwinds – often involving de-familiarization through processing. Her work considers the experience of enveloped sonic dwelling, utilizing extended durations and simple harmonic structures that emphasize variations in overtone complexity and psychoacoustic artefacts.