Pavel Zlámal (*1980) is the Czech clarinetist, saxophonist, improviser and composer, studied at Janacek academy of performing arts in Brno. He is a leader of several projects – avant-garde Next Phase, Brno Improvising Unit, improvising ensemble Divergent Connections Orchestra or new project Heterofón. Zlámal performs solo as a interpreter, improviser and experimenter. He has recorded and worked with such musicians as George Cremaschi, Rod Paton, Hilary Jeffery, Nicolas Collins, Peter Graham, Hanus Axmann, Will Guthrie, David has, Ivan Palacky, Jan Faix, Bernadette Zeilinger. In 2010 he was a member of an ambitious international project ÖNCZkekvist Improvising Orchestra, premiered several dedicated compositions by Peter Graham - Broken Concerto (2012), Death has a smile on its face (2014), COAX (2015), or Tasted thoughts (2015) by Michael Nejtek. Currently he is member of Brno Contemporary Orchestra, The Fireballs & Gone Hepsville, B - Side Band and Organic Concept. Cooperates with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Prague improvising orchestra. He is established jazz and freejazz player.
Miroslav Tóth & Rafal Mazur duo
Miro Tóth is a Slovak composer, saxophonist, and vocalist specializing in the musical components of audiovisual performance. Tóth initiated the collective improvisation orchestra Frutti di Mare, a fluid group of some 60 performers who create audiovisual performances in accordance with a video jockey’s real-time improvised graphic notation. He also spearheaded the abstract improvisational orchestra Musica Falsa et Ficta. In addition to his extensive solo work for chamber orchestras and film, Tóth performs in collaboration with Slávo Krekovič, ddkern, Martin Burias, Rafal Mazur and Kováts Gergő.
Rafal Mazur
Since 2000 Rafal Mazur has played an acoustic bass guitar built to his own specifications by luthier Jerzy Wysocki. He has developed an advanced and individual approach to his instrument, and to improvisation in general, in which sonority, extended technique and gesture combine effortlessly in performance. He has taken an important role in Kraków to support young artists and improvised music. A founder of the ImproArt studio of improvisation, he has performed jazz and improvised music in clubs and festivals across Poland and Europe, and in China, South Korea and Israel. He is an organizer of the Laboratory of Intuition, a series of spontaneous art presentations in Kraków. Mazur's main field of interest and activity is collective and solo free/spontaneous improvisation. In his practice as an improvising musician and on his way to mastery/artistry he studys Chinese philosophy (Jagiellonian University). He regards Taoism as a strong base for the enrichment of the improviser's attitude, and to this end he practices the Taoist's martial art TaiJi Quan Chen. For Mazur, following the masters of Chinese philosophy and martial arts is crucial in the development of a state of mind prepared for the unexpected situations an improviser encounters in the act of collective free improvisation.
Miroslav Tóth: soprano saxophone
Rafal Mazur: acoustic bass guitar
