"Akira Sakata (坂田明; born 21 February 1945 in Kure, Hiroshima) is a Japanese free jazz saxophonist.

Sakata began studying music seriously at high school, where he played clarinet.[1] He played alto sax in a jazz band when at Hiroshima University.[1] He trained as a marine biologist.

Sakata joined the Yamashita Yosuke Trio from 1972 till 1979 and toured internationally with them. In 1986, he performed with Last Exit with Bill Laswell. This performance was released as 1987's Noise of Trouble: Last Exit Live in Tokyo. Laswell went on to play bass on and produce Sakata albums such as Mooko, Silent Plankton and Fisherman's.com, the last of which also featured the reclusive Pete Cosey (who had worked with Miles Davis) on guitar.[2]

In 1994, Sakata organized a one-month tour of Uzbekistan, Mongolia and China with the Flying Mijinko Band, consisting of 14 members from Japan, Africa and America. Some of those included were Laswell, Anton Fier and Foday Musa Suso.

He has more recently worked with DJ Krush[3] and Chikamorachi (Darin Gray and Chris Corsano)."

"Giovanni Di Domenico, pianist, performer, composer, was born in Rome on the 20th July 1977, a significantly tempestuous period in socio-political terms, featuring hostile polarizations and an ostensive paramilitarism, mutinous ideological confrontations and bloody terrorist attacks, rendered infamous in the description 'Years of Lead'. In that particularly caustic summer, the so-called 'Movement of 1977', non-aligned, without any ties to the Parliament and non-violent, broke into the scene of prevalent conspiracy-steeped paranoia condemning the repressive, discriminatory and authoritarian tendencies of the Italian State and demanding equality for minorities and further civil rights. The coinciding liberalization of the media market, putting an end to RAI's monopoly, further defined this period as the prime moment for pirate radio, with the consequence of a libertarian fragmentation of youth culture, epitomised by punk.

One could argue that Giovanni, self-taught until the age of 24, inherited - in philosophy, politics and artistically - the most benign and affirmative traits of that period, diversifying his action in the context of a recently unified Europe, promoting improbable connections, exploring varied geographies, comfortably manoeuvring aesthetical fringes and making a commitment to live performance at its most liberating and engaging. Surprisingly, the path that lead him to that point had an unexpected detour: following his father's consecutive assignments as a civil engineer he actually lived out his first decade in Africa - until he was five in Libya, from then until his eight anniversary in the Cameroons and until ten in Algeria. His far off native country was not synonymous with civil unrest as much as with opera, whose arias he would memorize with his siblings in order to practice the language and provide some family entertainment. The condition of expatriate had a strong influence in his education - he clearly remembers the calls of the muezzin, the sound of exotic musical instruments in local markets, the ritualistic expression music took in the streets of Yaoundé, or the songs he heard from his nanny in the Cameroons.

When he finally enrolled in music school - majoring in 'jazz piano'- he further built on an encyclopedic technique; rhythm, harmony and tone are informed by non-western traditions yet equally sensitive to Debussy's "Préludes", Luciano Berio's "Sequenzas", to the 'ambi-ideation' heard in Borah Bergman's Soul Note recordings, Cecil Taylor's polissemic density, Paul Bley's bruised transparency and of course, the most radical manifestations stemming from the underworld of pop music, invariably tied together by his own original praxis. A distinction - one would call it generational - he shares with many of the musicians he has crossed paths with recently, artists as different as Chris Corsano, Jim O'Rourke, Akira Sakata, Tetuzi Akiyama, Okkyung Lee, Balasz Pandi, Nate Wooley, Yan Jun, John Edwards, Darin Gray, Roger Turner, Steve Noble, DJ Sniff, Terrie Ex, David Maranha, Manuel Mota, Arve Henriksen, Norberto Lobo, Peter Jacquemyn, Alexandra Grimal, John Duncan, Tony Allen, Rafael Toral or Toshimaru Nakamura. Di Domenico has founded his own label, Silent Water, home of an eclectic and occasionally unclassifiable production. He lives in Brussels."

"Giotis Damianidis was born in 1981 and grew up in Thessaloniki. Since 2006 he lives in Brussels.

He has performed in many countries playing different styles of music ranging from free jazz to Afro beat an rock.

He has collaborated with artists such as Sakis Papadimitriou, Tony Allen and Christos Yermenoglou.

He is the leader of the Quintet Punk Kong and was a co-founder of the Act up trio, Don Kapot, Tape is rolling and a sideman in bands such as Man on Fire, World Squad, Giovanni Di Domenico's Abschattungen and Aufheben & Ruth Tafebe's Afrosoulmessengerz.

In 2013 he founded his own label, Mr. Nakayasi."

"Petros Damianidis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. He started his music studies at traditional greek instruments and continued studying electric bass with Petros Kardasis. Since 2007, he has been studying classical double-bass at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki with Mpampis Heimarios and he continued his studies in Maastricht Jazz academy with Jan Van Den Boomen and Phillipe Aerts.

Since 2009, he has been teaching electric and acoustic bass in various music conservatories in Greece.

He is founding member of Trio Amnesia, Toys Factory and Act Up Trio, participates in several groups of jazz music (Terence Blanchart quartet collaboration with State Clasical Orchestra of Thessaloniki Greece, set up: Terence Blanchart tr, Fabian Almazan p, Petros Damianidis db, Justin Folkner dr, plus and minus Collective orchestra, Swing time Quartet etc.) and has performed at concerts in different cities in Greece.

In 2010, he participates in the Summer school of Jazz Music of Codarts in Rotterdam and had lessons with Hein Van de Geyn.

He has collaborated with Sakis Papadimitriou, Gianni Lenoci, Augusto Pirodda, Giovanni Di Domenico, Danielle Martini, Rubben Verbrugen, Joao Lobo, Panayiotis Damianidis, Christos Yermenoglou, Achilleas Sourlas and others."

"Stephanos Chytiris is a drummer and improviser from Athens Greece. He has worked on a wide range of projects from avant-garde jazz to contemporary classical music. Keeping the balance between tradition and modernism on drums and cymbals, his projects function as a free base for musicians to explore and interact with personal and collective unconscious, aiming to reach a cathartic experience.

He has studied sound art, at Dartigton college of arts (England) and trained in Long Island University (New York) under the tutelage of Sam Newsome and renowned master drummer, Michael Carvin. Since then he has collaborated and developed projects such as Flux Project with Bram De Looze and Luca Rosenfeld with "Pyrin" (2014) being the first album of the trio produced by Michael Carvin, featuring Daniel Carter, Todd Neufeld and greek actress Calliroee Myriagou. "Egata" is his large ensemble unit with Ingrid Laubrock, Todd Neufeld, Pascal Niggenkemper, Rema Hasumi, Lester St. Louis and Joe Moffett. He has performed with Tony Malaby for several concerts in Greece and many more artists and musicians from Athens creative scene."

"Balázs Pándi (born 6 August 1983) is a Hungarian drummer. He has worked and toured with various acts from all around the world including Venetian Snares, Otto von Schirach, Last Step, To Live and Shave in L.A., The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble and Zu. He also played drums for the Blood of Heroes project.

Since 2009 he has frequently played drums live with Merzbow, and they have released three live records together. They headlined the experimental stage at the Scion Rock Fest in Tampa, Florida in 2012. More recently, he and Merzbow have performed as a trio with Mats Gustafsson. They released Cuts in 2013 on RareNoise. For the follow-up Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper (2015), they were joined by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth.

Balázs started an electronica-metal-breakcore project with Bong-Ra called Wormskull in 2010 (their first album "Sound of Hell" was released in 2011). Most recently he joined the Italian experimental instrumental band Zu. His current projects include Italian doom band Obake, Metallic Taste of Blood (featuring Colin Edwin of Porcupine Tree, Eraldo Bernocchi of Obake and Jamie Saft), and Slobber Pup (Saft, Joe Morris and Trevor Dunn). From 2012 he started to play solo shows on selected festivals under his own name."

"Aleksandar Škorić, based in Groningen, Netherlands, is a drummer known for the groups 3TIMES7, EVA, Falga, Hala, Mofaya!, and Sitting Bull."