Majid Araim is an Iraqi-American multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, curator, visual artist, researcher and a fixture of the Atlanta improvisation and new music communities. Majid's prolific work as a composer focuses on resonance and dynamics, experimental approaches, and is oriented towards the natural world and reimaginings thereof. Since 2019, Majid has been increasingly focusing their sights on theatrical interpretation of expression documented in premiers of Cardinal Queen 2019, Regarding Bullfrogs 2019, Excerpts of an Opera 2020, Fragments From Otherwhere 2021, Giants Moot 2022, Extrapolations from Otherwhere 2023, and Regarding Bullfrogs and Universal Power Dynamics 2024; all relating to the large form work Otherwhere, an imagined world existing alongside our own, featuring anthropomorphized animals and magical creatures as characters, accessible to humans only through dreams and meditation and exploring a myriad of themes and subjects, including play, communication, and observation as a representation of the different degrees in which biological systems coexist in any given environment, creating space for the exploration of how we treat each other and the world in which we exist. Majid has given hundreds of performances across the United States and Europe as soloist and in the duo Whispers of Night, as well as experimental music groups such as Atlanta Improvisers Orchestra, BASrelief, The Convergence, Chamber Cartel, Bent Frequency, sunknameless, and Small Peoples Music Ensemble. Majid is a recipient of PREMIER Artist Residency at Georgia Tech School of Music for Whispers of Night’s work with geofons, specialized contact mics for use in ground mediums, exploring communication through filtration of our natural environment; and individual artist awards from Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs in 2024, Fulton County Arts Council in 2023, 2024, and 2025 and Idea Capital Atlanta in 2023 to further develop the ever expanding large form work Otherwhere. Also in 2024, Majid received acceptance to the {RE}Happening Festival, held annually by the esteemed Black Mountain College Museum, as well as having a new dance work, “Lifecycle IV: Reflections” premiered at the Decatur New Dance Festival exploring the perspective of our relationship as humans with the nonhuman elements of our ecology. Majid holds degrees in Music Composition and Jazz Studies from Georgia Southern University, and since 2013 has presented over 130 concerts as curator of the Magic Lantern performance series. In addition to their creative work as a musician, they are a dedicated parent, horticulturist, and animal lover.

Instagram | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | @majidaraim851 Youtube | @themagiclantern1695 Youtube

Baltimore-born Borax took an early interest in sound, improvisation and electronics, beginning at age 4. At this young age he was able to see the potential of the modular synthesizer in improvised settings. He met many of his current collaborators while still in kindergarten and helped found the High Zero Festival in that atmosphere of intense creativity. He acquired his first harpsichord at age 9 and began experimenting with unique tunings and intonations based on numerology, the writings of Kepler and Pythagoras, as well as the 22 shrutis.

Youtube

Hunter Brown is a Berlin-based musician and sound artist whose experimental practice explores the intersection of digital simulation and human sonic perception. His work investigates how digital representations of sound, the materiality of audio systems, and computational abstraction shape auditory experience. This practice often manifests through the implementation of unconventional synthesis and analysis methods, machine learning, psychoacoustic phenomena, and spatial audio techniques.

Improvisation is also a central element of Hunter’s practice. He regularly performs using his Laptop Improvisation Instrument, a custom tool developed in the Supercollider programming language. He is actively involved in several improvisation-based projects, including Technical Reserve and Other Plastics.

Hunter’s work has been presented internationally at festivals, conferences, and venues such as Ars Electronica (Linz), Big Ears (Knoxville), Cafe OTO (London), Conference on AI Music Creativity (Graz), Festival Nueva Ópera (Buenos Aires), IRCAM Manifeste (Paris), Lobe 4DSOUND (Vancouver), and KM28 (Berlin).

In addition to his artistic practice, Hunter is a freelance audio engineer, serves as the technical director for Ensemble Dal Niente, and co-runs the record label Party Perfect!!! with collaborator Dominic Coles. He has also taught courses in electronic music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Chicago.

hunterbrownsound.com

photo credit: Jack Langdon

Samuel Burt is a composer and improviser in Baltimore, Maryland. He seeks out and crafts music driven by an indecipherable logic that the listener experiences intuitively. He performs on clarinets, modular synthesizer, and the daxophone. His other activities include programming musical software and firmware, teaching composition at Towson and Johns Hopkins Universities, and curating music and events for the High Zero Festival and the Red Room.

His new album, Rules and Rungulations, features modular synthesizer recordings built around the Benjolin and feedback patching techniques.

Bandcamp | Instagram | samuelburt.com

Dorothy Carlos is an experimental cellist working in performance and spatial audio. Her work heavily utilizes amplification and digital manipulation to challenge conventional ways of playing the cello. She is interested in electronics as an opportunity to construct alternate realities and seeks to obfuscate the line between acoustic and synthesized sound.

Bandcamp | Instagram

photo credit: Alyssa Soares

Thomas Kraines is a versatile cellist, composer, and teacher. He performs with the Network for New Music Ensemble, the experimental ensemble Unseen Rain, the jazz quartet Two Wings Two Biscuits, the ARCX Quartet, and the improvisation collective People's Music Supply. He is a former member of the Daedalus Quartet and the Peabody Trio.

Thomas teaches cello at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also directs the chamber music program, and at Philadelphia's Settlement Music School.

Thomas graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, and studied cello with Frederic Raimi, Orlando Cole, and Joel Krosnick, and composition with Tom Benjamin. He has performed at the SLLMF since 2006.

Youtube | Instagram | Facebook

Drummer, recording artist and educator Mike Kuhl hails from the musically diverse city of Baltimore. Kuhl has dedicated his life to the world of drumming and sound, opening up his artistry to amultitude of projects.

A graduate from Towson University and the University of Maryland, Kuhl has performed locally and throughout the globe alongside luminaries including Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Michael Formaneck, Drew Gress, Dave Ballou, Tim Berne, Jason Rigby, Mark Guiliana, Ellery Eskelin, Claudio Rodi, Beach House, Arboretum, Cigarettes After Sex, Tom Tom Club, and the Fuse Ensemble. As a leader and co-leader, Kuhl can be heard with his groups Kraft (Out of Your Head Records), Mike Kuhl Solo (Shineyboy Press,) Skullcap (Cuneiform) and The Furniture (Spanish Prayer).

Kuhl is currently the jazz drum professor at Towson University. Complementing his music life, Kuhl enjoys studying the martial arts of Chi Gong and Bagua kung fu.

Brenton Lim is a digital-experimental visual artist from Baltimore, Md creating immersive, glitch inspired generative art. Lim practices this through time-based and static artwork. He explores the concept of "digital rot" -- imagining how digital material decomposes over time.

He has shown works online and offline across Baltimore City and beyond at galleries such as Current Space, Towson University, Maryland Art Place, Asia North, and fubar Glitch Art Festival.

Linktree Instagram

Lemuel Marc is a Trumpet player and Composer from the New England area, whose work primarily focuses on Improvisation and the psychology of Improvisation as it relates to the musicians performing. Lemuel has performed and toured with a multitude of Musicians, such as Hamid Drake, William Parker, Tomeka Reid, Ken Vandermark, Jillian Upshaw, Devon Gates, Joe Morris, Ben Hall, Jake Meginsky, William Parker, Grant Beale, as well as his Band “ Your Biggest Hater” among many others.

David lives in Glasgow. He loves his niece, Piko, very much.

Bandcamp

photo credit: Mikolaj Szatko

Stewart Mostofsky does many things, often simultaneously. One of them is that he plays electronic instruments. He is also a member of the Red Room collective and the High Zero Foundation.

Lebanese-Italian-Irish-American artist and performer Lexie Mountain is a bunch of things. Their current practice finds them working on automatic watercolor paintings, haunted house music, and guided meditations. They can be seen in the feature film Adventures in Success (Jay Buim & Susan Juvet, 2018), and heard on their 2023 album and companion poetry zine “I Am Here To Win One Million Dollars” via Bandcamp.

Linktree

Odeya Nini is a Los Angeles based interdisciplinary vocalist, composer, vocal embodiment coach, and sound meditation practitioner. Her work has been performed in diverse venues from concert halls to galleries, tunnels, and caves and has been presented internationally at venues including The LA Phil, Merkin Concert Hall, MOCA, The Broad Museum, and MONA from Australia, Mongolia, Madagascar, and Vietnam. She is also a member of the three time Grammy nominated ensemble Wild Up. Odeya is the founder of Free The Voice and leads vocal sound meditations, workshops, and retreats exploring the transformative and healing qualities of embodying the voice.

odeyanini.com | freethevoice.com | Link Tree

According to a plethora of Facebook hate comments, Sarah’s practice centers around “devolving the saxophone with attention-seeking gimmicks,” some of which include: modifying instruments with tubes, animal calls, and live electronics; turning a preserved heart specimen into an electronic instrument; and performing fake dental surgery on unsuspecting audience members. Through her “attention-seekings,” Sarah aims to redefine the performer-instrumental relationship by inventing scenarios which dismantle tradition and expand music-making into a curiosity-centered, interdisciplinary process. As a composer, performer, and educator, she believes that exploration challenges us to listen, and to live, in radically new and healthy ways. Sarah is a Baltimore-based composer and saxophonist and performs regularly with her trio Sophie Rollover and as a member of Wieldflower Arts.

Jeron White bassist from Baltimore MD He leads his group Polarity from time to time throughout the region.

"Like any bassist worth his salt, White can provide the bare harmonic outline of a ballad, engage in serious walk-it-home swing, or hold down complex melodies himself, whether in composition or improvisation." Distinguish complex melodies himself, "whether in composition or improvisation.

"He composes and performs grooving music influenced by hip-hop and soul; and he plays free music with command and sensitivity" and sensitivity.

Polarity opened for Michael Formanek’s Ensemble Kolossus in April 2017 at NYU Theater. Jeron’s discography include Jamal Moore’s “Organix Trio Ancestral Communion”, “Theljon Allen "Prospective", Dimitri Nassar "Cresent Piano" Dimitri Nassar "America in The Key of Black"

Soundcloud | Dimitrinassar

Shelly Purdy (percussion) is a contemporary musician and teaching artist committed to presenting new and experimental music. Her sonic explorations tend to favor the mingling of found objects with more traditional instruments and an affinity for chance and improvisation whenever possible. Purdy regularly performs with such ensembles as the percussion quartet; Umbilicus, the science/music ensemble; The Inverse Square Trio, and the avant/jazz trio; The Compositions. Purdy also has been studying Javanese & Balinese Gamelan under the tutelage of Prof Gina Beck and is a board member for The High Zero Foundation and 2640 Collective.

Instagram | Soundcloud | Bandcamp

photo credit: Jason Poncheri

Maja Radovanlija is a versatile guitarist and musical explorer. Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, she brings nearly two decades of classical guitar training from University of Belgrade and Jacobs School of Music, where she earned Masters of Music and Doctor of Music Degrees (JSM, IU Bloomington).

Her musical path has been defined by a rich tapestry of collaborations that traverse diverse genres, from Balkan traditional music to Early music, jazz, and intuitive free improvisation. Radovanlija is an active member of multiple distinguished ensembles, including the Szilard Mezéi ensemble, Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Ensemble Studio6, MM Guitar duo, Pajunen/Radovanlija duo, Musika Medica trio and trio with Brothers Teofilović. Her innovative approach to music-making reflects a deep commitment to cross-cultural musical dialogue and creative expression.

Since 2011, Maja has taught classical guitar, improvised music and guitar related classes at the University of Minnesota School of Music in Minneapolis. When she is not in rehearsals, performing or teaching, Maja is passionate about the practice of yoga and meditation, nature walks, mushrooming, cooking and table tennis! Maja lives in St. Paul, MN with her wife Ivana, Loey the poodle and Lina the cat.

Martin Schmidt is a composer, sound artist, video artist and one-half of the internationally acclaimed duo (with husband Dr. Drew Daniel) Matmos, which has made albums and/or shared the stage with Bjork, Robert Wilson, Terry Riley, Zeena Parkins, Dan Deacon, So Percussion, Marshall Allen, the Kronos Quartet, and many more. For 15 years he was a manager and faculty member of the New Genres Department at the San Francisco Art Institute all the while performing in 20+ countries. He has been guest faculty at Stanford University, Yale University, California Institute of the Arts, was the Peter Ivers visiting scholar at Harvard University, a guest faculty member at the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University and is now teaching at the Peabody Institute.

Martin enjoys digital and analogue synthesis, using the recording studio as an instrument, playing percussion on unusual objects, and the piano. In his spare time he is president of The High Zero Foundation a 28 year old community organization that presents The High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music and DIFFUSION Festival of Multichannel Electro-Acoustic Music. He is a Leo/Dragon and loves warm hugs. Please join the High Zero Patreon, the most effective tool for presenting more experimental music in Baltimore.

Minneapolis-Saint Paul resident Davu Seru is an improvising musician and composer known primarily for his work on drums. His playing has afforded him an international reputation and awards from McKnight Foundation (2020 Composer Fellowship), Jerome Foundation (2017-18 Composer/Sound Artist Fellow) and commissions from Walker Art Center and Zeitgeist ensemble. For the past two decades-plus his collaborators have included Anthony Cox, Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Jack Wright, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, Jamal Moore, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, J. Otis Powell ‽, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, deVon Russell Gray, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, David Boykin, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Louis Alemayehu, Taylor Ho Bynum, Tony Hymas, Catherine Delaunay, Ta-coumba Aiken and Nicole Mitchell Gantt.

Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). In addition to being a musician, he is Curator of the Givens Collection of African American Literature and Life at University of Minnesota and co-author of the book Sights, Sounds, Soul: The Twin Cities Through The Lens of Charles Chamblis (MHS Press, 2017).

davuseru.com

photo credit: Keith Miesel

Alexander Wu is a composer, improviser, pianist, and programmer. He is interested in far-fetched logic, misplaced memories, profaned tools, and sometimes-disappointing sounds. He likes the tension of a body refusing to be mechanized, and a machine refusing to become a body.

aleksuuu.github.io

Huichun Yang is a Taiwanese experimental musician and creative technologist based in Brooklyn, New York. Working with self-built wooden instruments, balloons, mouth harps, electronics, and computer processing, she transforms breath, touch, and bodily tension into sound. She performs solo and in collaborative projects including Oreo Cookie Therapy and EndGrain. Her work has been presented internationally at festivals and venues including ICMC, Non-Event, EESF, and the SOUND/IMAGE Festival.

huichunyang.com | Bandcamp | Instagram

photo credit: Femi Shonuga-Fleming