Joseph Bacon is a native of San Francisco, son of the American composer Ernst Bacon. He studied guitar with Segovia, Ida Presti, Alexander Lagoya and Julian Bream. His background also includes degrees from Stanford and Harvard Universities, exhibitions of his own paintings and sculpture, and an extended study of Indian music with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He is a self-taught lutenist and an authority on the musical literature for the lute. He has taught on the faculties of the University of Oregon, Mills College in Oakland, California State College at Hayward, and Music and Arts Institute in San Francisco, and has performed in London, New York, Sand Francisco and many other cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

As befits one who took her degree in English literature for fear of having too much sheer fun in the study of music, Baczewska's solo compositions derive essentially from an a capella sensibility, the voice as orchestra with consonants, pause and juncture, the click of affricatives as primary, if not sole, percussion. In 1974, she was co-founder of Care of the Cow, a cutting-edge performance group which developed quite a following through the early 1980s. During 1981's Like Feeding Pork to Pigs, Baczewska had a breakthrough: the home of the human voice is the brain. Ultimately, the expanding voice can be made to take any shape, fill any space, or convey any message. Her focus on the voice and solo performance evolves from this experience. She has concertized extensively and has recently worked on several important collaborations: with video artist Irit Batsry on vocals for video soundtracks; with Fritz Lang, to compose and perform the soundtrack for Lang's film Woman in the Moon: and, with dancer/choreographer Dennis O'Connor (with whose company she toured the United States and Europe in 1994.) She continues to explore the voice as instrument, sometimes performing with props like a weaving loom, and sometimes incorporating the multitrack capabilities of the recording studio as an added compositional tool.

Sound artist/performer Ellen Band teaches sound art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She is artistic director of Audible Visions, a new music/sound art performance venue in the greater Boston area. Her reviews on new music and sound art have been published by Pform and Boston Rock and her interview series with contemporary composers, "The Motivation Interviews," appear in issues 45 and 48 of Musicworks: The Canadian Journal of Sound Exploration. A Former new music educator (for 15 years), she wrote the newsletter set while teaching at the Eliot-Pearson lab school at Tufts University.

Born in Britain in 1939, Martin Bartlett came to Canada in 1952. He studied at the University of British Columbia and at Mills College. Important influences were: the music and writings of John Cage; electronic composers David Tudor, Pauline Oliveros and David Behrman; Indian musicians, the Dagar Brothers and Pandit Pran Nath; K.R.T. Wasitodipuro; and the music of the Javanese gamelan. He was one of the founders of the Western Front, an artist-run gallery, studio and performance space in Vancouver, and taught composition, electroacoustic music and world music at Simon Fraser University. Martin died of AIDS in 1993 in his home in Vancouver.

Excerpt from Original Liner Notes from the 1982 lp – Philip Elwood

In a recording world nearly suffocating with the monotonous sounds of pre-fab electric "rock," 1750 Arch Records has been like a breath of fresh musical air. They have dared to record "live," and issue unedited renditions; they have presented new sounds, fascinating ensembles and esoteric instrumental experiments.

But even in the rarified audio world of 1750 Arch Records the microgroove disc contained herein must be considered as unusual. Unusual, in fact, that the recording session ever took place; unusual in the sounds that emerge, and unusual in the concept and instrumental collaboration that we hear.

Black phoned. He said "Phil, you write the notes for our record". "Yessir," I replied, "…what record?" Black is not only physically impressive (he is, after all, called "Big" Black) he is also very persuasive verbally.

John Bischoff ((b. 1949, San Francisco) is an early pioneer of live computer music. He is known for his solo constructions in real-time synthesis as well as his ground-breaking work in computer network bands. Bischoff's music is built from intrinsic features of the electronic medium: high definition noise components, tonal edges, imperfections, transitions, digital shading, and non-linear motion. Through empirical play and investigation he builds pieces that can be described as sonic sculptures, shaped in real-time and present for the duration of a performance. Recently, he has fashioned pieces that combine electronically-triggered bells with synthetic computer sounds. In such works bells are distributed around the performance space in a pattern distinct from the speaker locations. His idea is to disperse the sense of "source" in electronic music—to release the music from being trapped in the speaker enclosure—while highlighting the beauty of speaker-transmitted sound at the same time.

Bischoff studied composition with Robert Moran, James Tenney, and Robert Ashley. He has been
active in the experimental music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 25 year as a composer, performer, teacher, and grassroots activist. His performances around the US include NEW MUSIC AMERICA festivals in 1981 (SF) and 1989 (NYC), Experimental Intermedia (NYC), Roulette Intermedium (NYC), and the Beyond Music Festival (LA). He has performed in Europe at the Festival d'Automne in Paris, Akademie der Künst in Berlin, Fylkingen in Stockholm, and TUBE in Munich. He was a founding member of the League of Automatic Music Composers (1978), considered to be the world's first Computer Network Band, and he co-authored an article on the League's music that appears in "Foundations of Computer Music" (MIT Press 1985). He was also a founding member of the network band The Hub with whom he performed and recorded from 1985 to 1996. In 1999 he received a $25,000 award from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts (NYC) in recognition of his music. Recordings of his work are available on Lovely Music, Frog Peak, and Artifact Recordings. A solo album, APERTURE, was released on 23FIVE INC in 2003. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Mills College, in Oakland, California.

Iris Brooks specializes in contemporary and world flute music and has performed in Egypt, Iceland, Japan, Canada, Bali, and throughout Europe. Her articles on new music have been published in a variety of journals and she served as the editor of EAR Magazine

Since 1972, Bill and Mary Buchen have collaborated to integrate the sonic and visual arts as a multi-disciplinary form they define as Sonic Architecture. They have designed sound installations for museums, galleries and public sites throughout the United States. Large-scale public works include: Sound Parks and Science Playgrounds, Aoelian (wind) Harps and acoustic designs for urban and natural environments. Their pursuits center on the study of acoustic phenomena examined through its applications in science, architecture, ecology, and diverse world cultures. As composers they create metaphorical soundscapes for installation environments. Sound sources for their investigations utilize electronic technologies, computer-aided design and field recordings.

Tom is a baritone with a wide range of experience in a variety of musical genres. He is best known for his collaborations with contemporary composers and improvisers. He has commissioned and premiered over 100 new works. His most recent associations with composers include those with Robert Ashley, David First, David Behrman, Donald Knaack and Roscoe Mitchell. He is producer and curator of World Music Institute's Interpretations series in New York.

Charlie Buel was born in San Francisco in 1943 and began studying piano and writing music at the age of seven. He majored in composition at San Francisco State University where he taught in the experimental college and helped to found the Collegium Musicum. Further studies at U.C. San Diego with Robert Erikson, Kenneth Gaburo and Pauline Oliveros resulted in Four Theatre Pieces , for which he received his M.A. He is perhaps best known for his piece for solo alto saxophone, Reflections on Gaga Todi (1972). In 1994, he made plans for the recording of Last Works , knowing it would be his last work. He died before the project was completed.

Wendy Jeanne Burch is a poet and singer/performer, published internationally, with her Masters degree in Creative Writing. She has performed with poetry, movement, and voice in various venues with other artists, including her late husband composer/performer Joe Catalano, Pauline Oliveros, Marianne Tomita-McDonald, Toyoji Tomita, Erika Rogers, and others. Her most recent book is Traffic Prayers, with CD, and is available through the Deep Listening Catalog.

Wendy also is an animal and people psychic communicator, and a Reiki Master; she owns two pet related businesses, and is a sculptor/artist. She lives with her partner, Jon Steel, and her puppy, birds, fish and snake in the beautiful Oakland Hills of California.

Warren Burt attended the State University of New York, Albany (BA, 1971) and the University of California, San Diego (MA, 1975) before moving to Australia in 1975. In Australia he has worked in academia (La Trobe University, NSW Conservatorium, Victorian College of the Arts, Australian National University), education, and radio (freelance and commissioned productions for ABC and PBAA), and as a composer, film maker, video artist, and community arts organizer.