Burkhard Beins is a Berlin-based composer/performer working in the fields of experimental music and sound art who is known for his definitive use of percussion in combination with selected sound objects. Furthermore, he works with live-electronics/analog synthesizers and has conceived several sound installations. Since the late 1980’s he is performing at internationally renowned venues and festivals throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia as diverse as the LMC Festival (London), Int. Ferienkurse (Darmstadt), SKIF (St. Petersburg), Musiktage (Donaueschingen), Choppa Festival (Singapore), Cave 12 (Geneva), The Now now (Sydney), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Kid Ailack Music Hall (Tokyo), Taktlos (China), Berghain (Berlin), Wien Modern (Vienna), MoMA (New York), New Music Festival (Hanoi), Irtijal (Beirut), or Maerzmusik (Berlin). He has released more than 60 CDs and LPs by now. Next to his solo work he is a member of several ensembles like Polwechsel, Sawt Out, Perlonex and the 24-piece Splitter Orchester.”

Otomo Yoshihide was born in 1959 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. He was a pioneering figure in the Electroacoustic Improvisation scene, and today is a musician and producer ― a cross-genre music maker actively performing free improvisation, noise, and pop, simultaneously and independently on a global scale. He has long experimented with electronic technology and his compositions draw from a wide range of musical styles. His current sound embraces simplicity and texture over dynamism and instrumental virtuosity, in sharp contrast with the distinctive plunderphonics of his earlier style. As a film composer, he has produced over 100 pieces of music for visual, film, and television works.In recent years, he has been organizing unique conducted improvisation groups, in collaboration both with artists and non-musicians, under the name of “Ensembles.” Additionally, he has been committed to music workshops and participatory projects with challenged children, and a music festival as part of “Project FUKUSHIMA!,” which started after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, and for which he received a Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in 2012. In 2013, he received the Japan Record Award for his accomplishments, including composer for the theme music for the TV drama Amachan. In 2017 Otomo was appointed artistic director of Sapporo International Art Festival and he currently serves as director of Ensembles Asia.