Sylvain Kassap

Born in 1956. Clarinetist, composer and arranger. He becomes Bachelor of Arts in Musicology in 1977. He plays with the Trio (John Surman / Barre Phillips / Stu Martin) during the dance workshop of Carolyn Carlson in “la Chartreuse” in Villeneuve lès Avignon .

Since 1978, he has been playing with Sam Rivers, Evan Parker, Louis Sclavis, Han Bennink, Dominique Pifarely, Günther Sommer, Gianluigi Trovesi, Steve Lacy, Lol Coxhill, Aldo Romano, Okay Temiz.

As a composer, he is often requested to write music for movie, TV, theatre and dance. Aside from jazz and improvisation he played as a soloist or in different groups some pieces of John Cage, Mauricio Kagel, Mozart, François Rosse, Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Igor Stravinski, Toru Takemitsu.

Hélène Labarriere

Born in 1963, she learns double bass at Conservatoire de Boulogne at the age of 16.

 Takes part in “Jazz français à New-York” campaign by the side of D.Humair, M.Portal, J.F.Jenny-Clark, M.Solal, J.Kühn, D.Lockwood, M.Ducret. In 1989 is invited in Austria by Mathias Rüegg to work on a special project V.A.O. “Fe and Males”. It gave rise to meet many important Austrian’s musicians. Between 1990-1992 concerts in France and in Europe with J. Kühn, W. Reisjinger, R. Marcotulli, G. Thomas and takes part of collective and associative projects such as “Incidences” (F. Corneloup, M. Denizet, S. Kassap, J.M. Padovani, G. Siracusa, Y. Torchinsky, F. Tortiller).

In 1993 she founds her own band “Machination”. The band plays and tours in important festivals at Rennes , Couches, Banlieues Bleues, St Sever, Le Mans , Coutances, Halle That Jazz, Limoges , Malmô in Sweden .

Between 1993-1995 she works at the same time with Austrian musicians: “Trio N” with K. Dickbauer and U. Sherer, “Hommage” with W.Puschning.

Since the beginning of the 90's, Hélène and Sylvain Kassap have been playing together in different and various occasions: jazz, improvised music, rap or contemporary music. Invited by Robert Wyatt to play as a duet during the last "Meltdown Festival" in London , they decided to keep on playing in duo and they recorded in one day “Piccolo” which is the reflection of the different moods they play on stage.

Christophe Marguet

Born May 14, 1965. Workshops and master classes with Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid, Victor Lewis, David Liebman, Richie Beirach, Ron McLure, Billy Hart and John Abercrombie.

Since the early 80’s, works with musicians such as Bud Shank, Rene Urtreger, Buddy de Franco, Ted Curson, “Wild” Bill Davis Jr., Stephane Grappeli, Enrico Rava, Richard Galliano, François Jeanneau, Paolo Fresu, Gian Luigi Trovesi, Louis Sclavis, Sylvain Kassap, Christoph Lauer, Helene Labarriere, Ricardo del Fra, Kenny Wheeler, Evan Parker, John Greaves.

After winning the National Jazz Competition “La Défense” in 1995, the band has played in several festivals and recorded its first album “Resistance Poétique” which has won “the Django d’Or“ as best new French group in 1997.

He worked for the French movies maker Bertrand Tavernier.