Mark Sanders

Mark has worked with many greats of the British, European and American free jazz improvised music scene including Roscoe Mitchell, Roswell Rudd, Evan Parker, John Butcher, Henry Grimes, Elaine Mitchener, Wadada Leo Smith, Myra Melford, Charles Gayle , Sirone and William Parker

He has also played with Jah Wobble, Harold Budd, Bill Laswell, Christian Marclay, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ilan Volkov and The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

He is a member of many working groups including duos with Nicole Mitchell and Rhodri Davies, Neil Charles' 'Dark Days' with Cleveland Watkiss & Pat Thomas, 'Last Dream of the Morning' with John Butcher & John Edwards, 'Shifa' with Rachel Musson and Pat Thomas and 'Sarost' with Larry Stabbins & Paul Rogers.

As an educator he has taught improvisation at many universities around the country as a lecturer and guest tutor.
Mark has played concerts and festivals around the world and appears on over 220 CD and Vinyl releases.
Mark was a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists 2024

"Drop the needle on the first track — or any track for that matter — and the first thing one is bound to notice is the amazing percussion skills of Mark Sanders" – Peter Thelen... Exposé

"Mark is just incredible and immensely diverse, he is at the center of "Kwingyaw" and it is difficult to tell what he is doing to get some of these sounds." – Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery, NY

John Edwards

John Edwards grew up in London and started experimenting with the bass guitar before he switched in his twenties to play double bass. He is deeply rooted in the creative free jazz and improvisation genre. Since the 80ties he is as soloist and in many groups and ensembles in Europe active and became one of the most renowned bass players. He played/plays regular for example with Peter Brötzmann, Joe Mc Phee, Phil Minton, Maggie Nichols, Evan Parker, Roscoe Michtell, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Mark Sanders, Caroline Kraabel, John Butcher, Pat Thomas, Irène Schweizer, Hans Koch, Florian Stoffner, Gabriele Mitelli,  John Dikeman.

"I think John Edwards is absolutely remarkable: there’s never been anything like him before, anywhere in jazz." - Richard Williams, The Blue Moment

Rachel Musson

RACHEL MUSSON is a saxophonist, improviser and composer based in the UK. She has spent the last decade immersed in improvised music, and has also gradually been introducing composed elements into her work, drawing on text, field recordings and processing sounds. She is involved with a variety of improvisation projects, and works regularly with Mark Sanders, Pat Thomas, Hannah Marshall, Julie Kjaer, Corey Mwamba, Olie Brice, Alex Ward and Alex Hawkins, amongst others. She features on several releases, including a nonet featuring her composition 'I Went This Way' (577 Records), two with Shifa, feat. Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders, (577 Records), one with Mark Sanders and John Edwards (Two Rivers Records), trio with Liam Noble and Mark Sanders (Babel), and Corey Mwamba (Takuroku).

Alya Al-Sultani

Alya Al-Sultani is a vocalist and composer based in London, UK. Her first musical experiences were Iraqi folk songs sung by her great grandmother and radio broadcasts of Um Kolthum, Abdel-Halim and Fairouz which she listened to with her family while drinking sweet black tea infused with cardamom. After leaving Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, her family settled in Tottenham, North London where she began to discover the incredible new sounds of the 80s and music from the Caribbean.

Her musical education was entirely classically-focussed, on piano and voice. She learned the importance of technique, tradition, theory, respecting fellow musicians and respecting the music. But she did not learn freedom and it is this she has sought for the last decade. The pursuit of freedom in music is driven by her aesthetic, her immigrant experience and her Eastern feminism.

Apart from working on her own projects, Alya enjoys debuting new music for contemporary composers and experimenting with opera, including the integration of improvisation techniques, microtonal ideas and Eastern influences.

Robert Menzel

Robert Menzel was born in Dresden, Germany. After the early end of a quite promising career in Basketball, he decided to pick up the tenorsaxophone at the age of 17 and soon after started his studies at the Dresden College of Music. Some years later he moved to Brussels on a scholarship granted by the german academic exchange service (DAAD) to study at the „Koninklijk Conservatorium van Brussel“ with John Ruocco, from where he holds a Master‘s degree in jazz performance.

He currently lives and works in Berlin.
Being a fellow disciple of „The School of Spontaneous Melodism“ he is working in the fields of modern jazz/improvised music.
For his wide-angled improvisational concept he was awarded the „Carl Maria von Weber Grant“ by the city of Dresden. He played concerts all around Europe with both his own groups (Robert Menzel Quartet, cholesterol damage, schulbus, aldimenz,) and as a sideman with a.o. Richie Beirach, Till Brönner, Joachim Kühn, Albert Vila, Günter „Baby“ Sommer, Gunter Hampel, Erik Vermeulen, Matthias Schubert.
He most recently released his debut CD „Robert Menzel - Alchemy“ with the english Label Two Rivers Records. The album received critical acclaim from both the german and international press and was a featured artist in Jazzpodium‘s february edition.

Joshua Idehen

Joshua Idehen is a Poet, workshop facilitator, musician and founder of renowned poetry/music magazine Poejazzi.

As a poet, he has performed at most major festivals, appeared in anthologies alongside Linton Kwesi Johnson.

As a musician, he works in three bands: Benin City, HUGH and with electro dub outfit LV. He has gained accolades from Qmag, Artsdesk, Fact, Mojo, Clash, Mixmag, DJ and DIY.