Blaise Caillet (aka SKNAIL)

Jazz guitarist. Vocational studies at the EJMA under Jean-Pierre Pasquier. Collaboration with and guitarist for singer Valérie Lou and double bass player Popol Lavanchy: 2 albums, severals tours in Switzerland and abroad (Canada, Spain, France), participation in several TV and radio broadcasts. Backing for the jazz saxophonist Juliane Rickenmann in various bands, notably with the bass-player Ruggiero Campas Nunès and the drummer Gil Reber.

Participation as a guitarist in DJ Chanel's electro-acoustic performances at various nightclubs in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Collaboration, as a guitarist, with Alain Chanel to provide music for the Swatch brand's advertising, reports and trailers and creation of the Stare Case band.

Collaboration in Geneva, as a guitarist, with Mathieu Delieutraz to form the flamenco-jazz band called Polux, numerous concerts and festivals in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and in France. Collaboration as a guitarist and arranger for 2 albums (of which 1 is work in process) by the French rock group Ultra Dieez, numerous concerts in Switzerland and France, participation in various festivals.

Put aside his guitar and created the « SKNAIL» project in 2011. His aim is to compose and arrange an original musical project based on a combination of jazz and minimal electronica glitch music, names "glitch jazz", with professional jazz and classical musicians. He manages all the production, composition, recordings and mixings. A first album "glitch jazz" is released in 2013 and a second one "Snail Charmers" in 2015. An upcoming album "Mutation" will be released in September 2018.

Nya

A classically trained clarinet player, Nya turned to jazz, dub, electronica and rock very early and started focusing on writing and developing his own vocal style blending jazz, rap and reggae influences.

Based in Lausanne since 1990 to study political science, Nya co-founded Silent Majority with the sampling wizard Pierre Audétat, a band that was a precursor of jazz fusion and hip hop at the international level, experimenting with sampling, instrumentalists and multilingual rappers. The group enjoyed international critical success, played concerts in Europe and the United States and released two albums and an EP on the memorable Unik Records.

Nya moved on to join Erik Truffaz and his Quartet as a guest and actively collaborated on the highly successful albums "The Dawn" and "Bending New Corners", released on the legendary Blue Note label. Simultaneously, he performed regularly at London’s Blue Note Club with the Swiss collective Galaktic Sound Lab and collaborated with the French musician and movie director Siegfried for the soundtracks of his two feature films "Sansa" and "Louise Take 2" (select "Certain Regard" at Cannes 1998) and the soundtrack of Roschy Zem’s movie “Bodybuilder” (2014).

Nya presented his own music for the first time in 2002 together with Pierre Audétat at the Jazz Onze Festival in Lausanne as well as a commissioned composition at the Jazz Festival Willisau 2004 featuring Pierre Audétat, Julien Charlet and the oud player Jean-Pierre Smadja.

While working on his own solo album Rootz Teknowledgy released in 2010, his voice continued to be featured on albums by Erik Truffaz, Stade, Mobile in Motion, Art Bleek as well as the avant-garde electro-jazz band Brink Man Ship.

Nya has been collaborating with Sknail since 2013 and keeps on exploring borderline territories: between the organic and the digital, between trance and improvisation, between the freedom of jazz and the tightness of hypnotic rhythms, between down-to-earth poetry and outer space mysticism.

Discography:

• Nya: Rootz Teknowledgy (2010)
• Silent Majority: La Majorité Silencieuse (1993), Curfew (1995), Nightbloomers (1998)
• Erik Truffaz: The Dawn (1998), Bending New Corners (1999), Saloua (2005), Face-à-face (2006), Arkhangelsk (2007)
• Siegfried: Louise Take 2 (1999), Sansa (2004), Freespeed Sonata (2010)
• Le Gooster aka DJ Goo: Zig Zag Zen (1997), Deeper Shades of Soul (2003)
• Mobile in Motion: Far beyond my thought control (2002), Shadows of Danger (2008)
• Stade: Tactile (2005)
• Brink Man Ship: The Right Place To Be Lost (2005), Willisau ft. Nils Petter Molvaer (2008), Instant Replay (2011)
• Art Bleek: Art Supplies (2010)
• Chlorine Free: Le fish (2014)

Billie Bird

Billie Bird is not the frail little bird we would like to imagine.

Billie Bird, named after an admired English explorer is a woman who knows what she wants. Write songs, play them, give them to the public.

Between rhythm on the wire and harmonies that fly away, his guitar accompanies a strong voice, which sometimes comes from the head (hard) and sometimes guts (tight).

Spanish mother and French father, real name Elodie Romain, she may have learned the guitar from 9 years, then began to sing as a teenager, she took his time, to take off.

A recent first EP "La Nuit" announces an inaugural album this year, after having assured first parts of Girls in Hawaii and Piers Faccini.

Yannick Barman

Recipient of a trumpet diploma and awarded the 1st prize for virtuosity in trumpet at the Lausanne Conservatory of Music (1996), 1st prize in trumpet (1997) and excellence award (1998) of the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory (Paris). Went to New York and formed a quintet with which he recorded a CD, Sarah, released in 2001. Back in Switzerland, he did electro-acoustic experiments and formed the KiKu band. Took part in various projects, did several creations and took on composition commissions, which enabled him to go on tour in Switzerland, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Participation in the classical music field: the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Lausanne Sinfonietta Orchestra, the Tibor Varga Festival Orchestra, the Curtis Institute Orchestra of Philadelphia under Kurt Mazur, soloist in the Riga Symphony Orchestra (Latvia).

Collaboration with Léon Francioli, Josh Roseman, Steve Swallow, Rova Saxophone 4tet, Satoko Fujii, Andrea Parkins, Daniel Humaire, Ohad Talmor, Christophe Schweizer, Akira Horikoshi, Natsuki Tamura, Harald Haerter, Les Colifichets, Charles Schneider, Marcel Papaux, Bänz Oester, Dan Weiss, Ben Monder, Miles Okazaki, Marcello Giuliani, Cyril Regamey, KiKu, Eugène Kovax, Malcolm Braff, Hans-Peter Pfamatter, Dominik Burkhalter, Christoph Erb, Piano. Creation of the “Herz aus Glas” show.

This electronic acoustic show includes both visuals and music. The artist is playing trumpet and computer, accompanied by live electronic music. The compositions are realized from trumpet's sounds, sampled and transformed then added with electronic beats. The result is the extraction of a new sound potential from the trumpet.

Yannick Barman can be called a crossover artist. Starting out as a classical and J jazz artist, Barman soon started to take an interest in electronic music. From that point on he integrated computers into his sounds. Because of his delicate beats and ambient-sound background he gets invited to projects by Jazz as well as Classical musicians and tours around Europe, Asia and Africa.

Guy-François Leuenberger

Musical training under Christian Favre at the HEMU, obtaining a teaching diploma (2004), with honours as well as the Paderewski Prize, and a concert pianist diploma (2007). Training under Gary Magby and Anthony di Giantomasso as an intern in choir conducting at the lyric workshop run by the same institute. M.A. in composition within the Jazz section of the HEMU (2011); awarded the Moser prize. Recipient of the Leenaards 2011 bursary.

Arrangement and composition of various lyric and theatrical productions in Switzerland and France, active in the field of improvisation notably at the Lausanne Improvised Music Festival, backing and choir leader for several productions for the Lausanne Opera and pianist and composer for the Ecole-Atelier Rudra Béjart.

Creations: “Prometheus”, lied for baritone and six instrumentalists, “David et Goliath”, ballet for Rudra Béjart, “T’es pas tout seul”, musical show about Jacques Brel, “Le procès de Don Juan”, operetta based on a book adapted from Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's “La nuit de Valognes”, the triptych “Je confesse … avoir vécu” with the dancer M. Graham Tancredo Tavares. School music CEO.

Stéphane Chapuis

Born in 1967, "... this virtuoso of the bandoneon and accordion knows no boundaries of style: classical music, jazz, contemporary music, popular roots ... his artistic expression seduces from the start and is always full of truth ... "

Teaching diploma with Excellent Mention, Virtuosity of accordion with distinction and congratulations from the jury. He currently teaches at the HEMU - Lausanne (High School of Music), at the Cantonal Music Conservatory of Sion, at the EJMA - VS (School of Jazz and Contemporary Music).

Lead a concert activity in Switzerland and abroad.

He has performed at several major events in Swiss musical life:

• 41st, 43rd and 44h Montreux Jazz Festival
• The Espace 2 Schubertiade regularly since 2003
• East-West meetings of Château Mercier - Sierre

He is a member of Tango Sensations (bandoneon and string quartet), "Nights of Bessarabia" (ensemble of OSR musicians performing klezmer music), "Quinteto del fuego" and "Bandanéon 5tet" ( quintet interpreting the works of Piazzolla).

He plays or has played, with his brother Lionel Chapuis (accordion), Elmira Darvarova (violin solo of the Metropolitan Opera New York), George Vassilev (guitar - Bulgaria), Pavel Vernikov (violin - Russia), Brigitte Fournier (soprano - Switzerland) , Maxime Le Forestier (song - France), Dagoberto Linhares (guitar - Brazil), Christophe Fellay (percussion - Switzerland), Ute Lemper (song - Germany), Popol Lavanchy (double bass - Switzerland), Marcin Habela (baritone - Poland), ...

He teaches Masterclass in Switzerland, Tibor Varga - Sion Academy of Music among others, and abroad.

In solo, he collaborated with the Orchestra of the Academy of Music Tibor Varga - Sion, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the Cairo Opera Orchestra, the HEMU - Geneva Orchestra, the 'OSR (Orchester de la Suisse Romande), the OCL (Lausanne Chamber Orchestra), the OSJ (Jura Symphony Orchestra), the ESN (Symphonic Ensemble of Neuchâtel), .... and also with the composers Thüring Bräm, Jean-Luc Darbellay, Ysang Yun, Toshio Osokawa, ...

Expert in Switzerland for the "Hochmusikschule" in Bern, the "Lausanne Music School - Jazz Section", the Music Conservatory of Lausanne and Neuchâtel, the CVMA, the Swiss Music Competition for Youth, ... and for the biggest international accordion competitions, in Russia, France, Italy, Mexico, Lithuania, Portugal, Spain, ... ..

From 1983 to 1992, several times laureate of international competitions.

Cyril Regamey

Cyril Regamey, born in 1977 in Lausanne, took the courses of Stéphane Borel at the Pully School of Music and at the Conservatoire de Lausanne where he obtained a virtuosity in classical percussion in 1999. At the same time, he started playing jazz drums at age of 10 and follows the lessons of François Bauer at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music of Lausanne. Passionate researcher, he will change his way of conceiving music by meeting Moustapha Camara, percussionist of the National Ballet of Guinea and griot of his state. Performing as a sideman in styles as diverse as each other, he moved to New York in 2001 and founded his first quartet of contemporary jazz. He also performs solo, mixing his Western culture and traditional African music, but especially Cuba, his great passion since adolescence. He also performs with Piano Seven, a duet with Yannick Barman, Pascal Auberson, Malcolm Braff, Disfunktion, Marc Perrenoud Trio, Yilian Canizares, salsa orchestras and various small ensembles of modern and electronic music

Phillipe Ehinger

Studied the clarinet at the Geneva Conservatory and subsequently at the Geneva Higher Conservatory of Music under Robert Gugloz, obtaining a teaching diploma, then under Thomas Friedli, where he was awarded 2nd prize for virtuosity. Postgraduate studies and certificate at the London Royal College of Music under Colin Courtney and Colin Bradburry. Recipient of a bursary from the Marescotti and Kiefer-Hablitzel Foundations; won 1st prize in the Onze Plus Association's jazz and improvisation competition with the band “Aujourd’hui Madame”.

Musical research and improvisation in the form of performances with Jacques Siron and Manon Hotte. Composition and interpretation of music for theatre for productions directed by Claude Vuillemin, Guillaume Chenevière and Bernard Meister. Concert-performance creation with the video-artist Ulrich Fischer for the De La Bâtie Festival in Geneva. Interpretation of “Centre du Monde, prélude et fugue pour piano programmé” by Sébastien Grosset and Club-des-Arts at the Performing Arts Festival in Nyon and at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Arts in Paris. Collaboration and creation, together with Joy Frempong, of the album “Les voisins ne parlent pas tous la même langue”. Plays in various jazz, improvisation, chamber music, reggae, rock (Abt 409, B. Trontin) and commercial (Sarah Marcuse, Sarcloret) bands.

Trained in ensemble playing on old instruments under Lorenzo Alpert, HEM Geneva. Teaches at the Geneva Higher Conservatory of Music.

Alain Dessauges

Studied the piano, changed to electric bass and then double bass.

Participation in numerous revues and plays, backing for several singers: Valérie Lou, Yvonne Taylor, Sam Frank Blunier, Jean-Pierre Huser.

Active in the world of gypsy swing and jazz for about ten years: the Dany Bittel Quartet, the Sinti Swing Quartet (France), Michto Swing. Currently tours with Manouche Tsé-Tsé, Viperswing, 36 rue du Swing.