John Greaves - chant, basse, piano

More info on John Greaves

Sylvain Kassap - clarinets

The clarinettist Sylvain Kassap, born in 1956, has been a key figure of the jazz and improvised music scene since the end of the 1970s, but his desire to explore the different repertories available to his instrument has driven him naturally to try his hand at the work of contemporary composers and to be a founding member in 1993 of Laborintus, an ensemble devoted to creative music.

Composing firstly for the cinema, the theatre and dance, his desire to address the needs of soloists and groups such as Ars Nova and Alternance, led him to write in a more contemporary vein, influenced initially by Luciano Bério and Franco Donatoni, and then more personal.

A musician who plays with emotion and an effervescent, totally unpredictable imagination, Sylvain Kassap explores and deploys music that is rich in colour and nuance, from free improvisation to contemporary music, from ethnic music to compositions, driven by an untamed spirit of freedom.

© Muriel Valmont

See Sylvain Kassap's website

Hélène Labarrière - doublebass

Beginning her career in the jazz mainstream, she accompanied leading American musicians like Art Farmer and Johnny Griffin, but, as from 1987, moved towards more collective, improvised forms with French peers like Sylvain Kassap, Marc Ducret, and François Corneloup. She also worked widely with Austrian musicians, notably the Vienna Art Orchestra and Wolfgang Puschnig. In 1993, she created “Machination”, a group named after Soft Machine.

She performs regularly with Sylvain Kassap, notably in a duo format for which they both compose and that was invited by Robert Wyatt to the Meltdown Festival in 2001.

Jacques Mahieux - singing / drums

Jacques Mahieux biography - singer and drummer
Drummer with the seminal Dharma Quintet, a precursor of the French free scene, Jacques Mahieux has since provided the essential pulse for a number of leaders, from Henri Texier to Claude Barthélémy, Renaud Garcia-Fons to Gérard Marais and Sylvain Kassap, before creating his own group in 1995, and working recently in the Jean-Marie Machado sextet.

He is also an outstanding singer, performing his own compositions and covering songs by Randy Newman, Nick Drake... and Robert Wyatt.
"Dedicated to you" features both the drummer and the singer!.

Karen Mantler - singing / organ / harmonica

Karen Mantler began her career at the age of four, recording a song for her mother Carla Bley's legendary "Escalator over the Hill" album. After studying piano and organ, she went on to become a regular member of Bley's Big Band.

More importantly, however, Karen Mantler has made four exceptional albums in her own name, each with a very special charm and humour. The songs that she composes and performs explore a singularly personal vein at times reminiscent of Robert Wyatt. Unsurprisingly, she recently made a major contribution to Wyatt's latest release, "Cuckooland", sitting in on four songs including three of her own.

Dominique Pifarély - violin

Classically trained at the Conservatoire de Montreuil he began playing violin at the age of six, discovered pop, folk and jazz at the age of 13, and has since concentrated on jazz and improvised music.

In 1978, he began an association with the bassist Didier Levallet, manifest in such bands as Trio Levallet/Marais/Pifarély and Swing String System. In the 1980s he began leading his own bands and played as a sideman with Martial Solal, Eddy Louiss, Gérard Marais, François Jeanneau, Jean-Paul Celea, Patrice Caratini, François Couturier, Marc Ducret, Patrice Caratini, Mike Westbrook, Mathias Rüegg, Günter Sommer, and others.

From 1985, he collaborated regularly with the clarinettist Louis Sclavis, and in 1992 they formed the Sclavis/Pifarély Acoustic Quartet, featuring Marc Ducret and Bruno Chevillon. In the late 1990s he began focusing on duo work with the pianist François Couturier as well as working with Joachim Kühn, Daniel Humair, Louis Sclavis, Tim Berne, Vincent Courtois, Michel Godard, Jean-Paul Celea and Carlos Zingaro. He also works for the theater as a composer and a performer.

He regularly performs in whole Europe, and has been touring in Canada, Japan, India, Middle East, Latin America or Africa.

Dominique Pifarely website