Lotte Anker is a Copenhagen-based saxophonist/improviser/composer working in the field between improvisation, experimental jazz and contemporary composed music.
Recent years own groups/collaborations e.g.: Anker,Taborn,Cleaver (w/ Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver), What River Ensemble (w/ Phil Minton, Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Anna Klett, Chris Cutler, Garth Knox, Jesper Egelund), Electric Habitat (w/ Sofia Jernberg, Sten Sandell, Ikue Mori,Thomas Lehn, Michael Vorfeld) and Sub Habitat (w/ Mazen Kerbaj, Andrea Neumann, Sten Sandell, Katt Hernandez, Nina de Heney, Burkhard Beins).
Other past and present collaborations/groups: Okkyung Lee, Ute Wasserman, Andrea Parkins, Magda Mayas, Tony Buck, Joelle Leandre, Cristof Kurzmann, Raymond Strid, Jakob Riis, Sylvie Courvoiser, Ikue Mori, Evan Parker, Torben Snekkestad, Tim Berne, Paal Nilssen-Love, Paul Lovens, Johannes Bauer, John Edwards, Nate Wooley, Satoko Fuji, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Chris Corsano, Matthias Bauer, Biliana Voutchkova, Mokuto Trio, Copenhagen Art Ensemble, Life and Other Transient Storms, Fire! Orchestra, Marilyn Mazur: Shamania, and many others.
Performances/workshops/lectures etc. in Europe, USA, Canada, Russia, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Commissions and premieres at Huddersfield Contemporary Musicfestival, Gong Tomorrow, Donaueschingen New Music Festival/SWR, Ensemble Modern, Danish Radio Orchestra, Copenhagen Art Ensemble, Kitchen Orchestra (Norway) ao. Teaching/workshops ao. at RMC, Copenhagen and various Scandinavian/European Music Academies.
Received several grants and prizes from a Danish Arts Council, DJBFA, Danish Conductors Association.
Nominated for Nordic Council Musicprize in 2011.
In 2022 awarded the Danish Arts Foundation lifetime honorary.
Kaja Draksler (1987) is a Slovenian pianist and composer.
After her studies in the Netherlands (BA in jazz piano and MA in classical composition), she decided to stay in Amsterdam, where she became an active member of the improvisors scene, performing extensively all over the Europe.
Her main project is her Amsterdam-based Octet, which she formed in 2016. Besides her frequent solo concerts, she has been working internationally over the past years with trio Punkt.Vrt.Plastik, quartet Hearth, and in duets with Terrie Ex, Susana Santos Silva, Eve Risser (To Pianos), Onno Govaert (Feecho) and Szymon Gąsiorek (Czajka & Puchacz).
She is one of the founding members of the interdisciplinary group I/O and part of the internationally acclaimed Doek collective.
As a composer she has been commissioned by various international groups, ranging from vocal and chamber ensembles to big bands and orchestras.
Kaja is interested in finding ways to merge the composition and (free) improvisation by working with different structures and musical logics. In the spirit of the Dutch jazz/improvised music legacy, she is drawn to the idea of erasing the stylistic and historical musical borders, and discovering personal expression and language through composition and improvisation.
Nick Dunston is an acoustic and electroacoustic composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist.
Called an “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde”(New York Times), his performances have spanned a variety of venues and festivals across North America and Europe. His work explores notions of ancestral memory, materiality, embodiment, decolonization, and Afro-surrealism. As a collaborator he has worked with artists such as Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Lucrecia Dalt, Mary Halvorson,Imani Uzuri, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Webber, Amirtha Kidambi, and Vijay Iyer. In addition to four studio albums released under his name, Dunston has been commissioned by artists and organizations such as Bang on a Can, JACK Quartet, A L’ARME! Festival, Ex-Aequo, Bass Players for Black Composers, Tenth Intervention, Johnny Gandelsman, T R O M P O, Maggie Cox, Joanna Mattrey, and Joy Guidry. In 2019 he was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette, which supported the creation of the trans-media song cycle La Operación, the double bass quintet piece The Floor is Lava!, and his debut studio album, Atlantic Extraction. In 2020 in collaboration with Dogbotic Labs, he co-created “Ear Re-training”, a music composition course focusing on media-bending experimental techniques and concepts. He, along with Katherine Young were featured as the first Artists-in-Residence with Wet Ink Ensemble for the 2021-2022 season, where Dunston created his 14-piece ensemble work Reverse Broadcast, himself performing on double bass, processed radio, and improvised Conduction. Dunston currently resides and maintains an active presence in both the Berlin and New York experimental music scenes.
Erland Dahlen has played on over 130 records since the mid-1990s, and has toured with an impressive list of top-ranking artists in a variety of genres: Kiruna, Mike Patton/Kaada, Ingrid Olava, Eivind Aarset Sonic Codex Orchestra, Mathias Eick, Serena Maneesh, Arve Henriksen, Hanne Hukkelberg and Marit Larsen, to name just a few. He is probably best known as the drummer in the successful band Madrugada for the last years of the band’s life, and as the drummer in Nils Petter Molvær’s explosive new trio.
ERLAND DAHLEN Solorecords:. Rolling bomber 2012, Blossombells 2015 , Clocks 2017 and Bones 2020 .soloconcerts in europe 2011-2021.
Grammys:
MTV Europa price Marit Larsen , “Under the Surfase” 2006 pop
MTV Europa price Madrugada, “The deep end” 2005 Rock
38 «Spellemann» nominations and 12 spellemanns awards as a studio musician.
«Spellemann» prices:
Geir Sundstøl – 2018 Åpen klasse
Nils Petter Molvær – 2016 Jazz
Claudia Scott – 2014 Country
Ida Jenshus – 2012 Country
Onkel tuka – 2011 Country
Ingrid Olava – 2010 Pop
Superfamily- 2007 Pop
Hanne Hukkelberg – 2006 Åpen klasse
Marit Larsen – 2005 Pop
Madrugada spellemenn- 2005 Band award
Madrugada deep end – 2005 Rock
Ane Brun/Madrugada – 2005 Årets hit