Catherine Christer Hennix, born 1948 in Stockholm, is an artist, poet, composer, and philosopher with a strong interest in logic, the foundations of mathematics, and formal music theory. Hennix began her musical studies in the 60s, paying particular attention to the music of Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen. She pursued studies with Hindustani raga master Pandit Pran Nath in the 70s, and has been a key protagonist in the Downtown School along with La Monte Young and Henry Flynt, with whom she shared a number of collaborations. Together, they coined the term HESE (Hallucinogenic Ecstatic Sound Environment) to aptly describe their scientifically systematic quest for ecstatic states of consciousness. Hennix’s interest in drone music and the meditative, trance-like state it induces is apparent in her exploration of similar music in many other cultures and traditions, drawing inspiration from the Japanese Gagaku music and the early, vocal, thirteenth-century music of Perotinus and Leoninus, for example. 
› CTM.12 preview article on CC Hennix 
 
 
Amelia Cuni is a singer, composer and performer trained in India, according to the tradition of Dhrupad singing and Kathak dance. Her present work includes contemporary music and multimedia collaborations with several artists of international repute. 
› ameliacuni.de
 
 
One of the avant garde’s foremost trumpet explorers, Franz Hautzinger studied at the Jazz department of today’s Art University in Graz from 1981 to 1983 until lip palsy forced him to take a six year break from trumpeting. After moving to Vienna in 1986 he started to explore the trumpet in his very own and un-academic way. The conscious decision to avoid electronic sound sources while still striving to comprehend the development of digital music on the trumpet, notably via the quarter tone trumpet he purchased in 1997, provided the impetus for Hautzinger’s development of an entirely new cosmos of sound for the instrument. A teacher at the Vienna conservatory since 1989, Hautzinger boasts an impressive number of collaborations and recordings, and has shown that, even in times where postmodernism is history, an instrument can still be reinvented.
› franzhautzinger.com
 
 
Robin Hayward, tuba player, researcher and composer, has redefined the tuba’s potential both in the areas of noise and microtonality, and his compositions for other instruments reflect a similar experimental, medium-specific approach. He has toured extensively and has collaborated with such luminaries as Charles Curtis and Roberto Fabbriciani. Active in many contemporary music ensembles, he founded Zinc & Copper Works in 2005 in order to promote continued research on brass instruments. In 2009 Hayward developed the first fully microtonal tuba together with the music instrument manufacturers B&S. He is currently pursuing a doctorate on the acoustics of this recently developed tuba at the Technical University in Berlin
› robinhayward.de
 
 
Music has been Hilary Jeffery’s main activity since 1990, which started with a journey to the Sahara Desert, accompanied by a trombone. This journey and the sense of silent-space experienced there, have excerted a continuous influence on his music ever since. Hilary’s work has included numerous recordings, international concerts, tours, and commissions, in addition to a long string of collaborations. Through his music, Jeffery researches new compositional forms conceived as maps, working with different combinations of notations, texts, and images. He is also active in the fields of dance, theatre, and performance
› hiljef.com
 
 
Ralf Meinz has worked as audio engineer at the Zimmertheater Tübingen, the Theaterhaus Stuttgart, and the Zeitkratzer Ensemble among others. Apart from his live and studio work, he is still active as a drummer in several improvisation projects and bands.
 
 
Having studied with Franz Koglmann in Vienna and Jean-Francois Canape in Paris, Paul Schwingenschlögl has worked as a musician and composer since 1986. Touring and recording extensively, he is also active in the realm of theatre through composition, performance, and acting. In his own band, African Chase Experience, he combines African singing and drumming with avant-garde jazz and rock. 
 
 
 
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