An evening of composed and improvised acoustic music exploring unique combinations of instruments and explorations on those instruments.

Duo: Tony Dryer, Acoustic Bass and Jacob Felix Heule, Percussion

Trio: RTD3 (Ron Heglin, Trombone and Voice, Tom Nunn, invented instruments, Douglas Carroll, Cello)

Quintet: A combination of the two groups

Ron Heglin is a trombonist and vocalist working with extended techniques on the trombone and with spoken and sung imaginary languages as a vocalist. His trombone and tuba performance has been influenced by his study of North Indian vocal music and his attention to language sounds and sound patterns in the environment. He is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area improvisational and compositional music community and performs locally and internationally. As a graphic artist he experiments with the use of graphic scores for music performance.

Tom Nunn has designed, built and performed with experimental musical instruments since 1976 and has been an active participant in improvised music performances in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1978. He has also performed in Canada, Europe and New Zealand. He has built over 150 instruments and appears on a number of CDs. He has written a number of published articles on improvisation and experimental instruments and self-published his book, Wisdom of the Impulse: On the Nature of Musical Free Improvisation in 1998. Mr. Nunn currently performs with the groups RTD3, T.D. Skatchit, Ghost in the House, Reel Change, and Axallto. His most recent invention, the skatchbox, is featured on the new CD, "T.D. Skatchit & Company" (Edgetone Records) with David Michalak and six fellow Bay Area improvisers.

Doug Carroll creates new sound domains using extended techniques in improvisations for cello. He has a BA in Music from University of Alabama in Birmingham, MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College (Oakland) and has studied at Royal Conservatory in Den Hague (Netherlands), and Darmstadt International Summer Course for New Music (Germany). He has composed electronic and acoustic music for concerts, dance, theatre, film and video, and performed music internationally, including the world premiere of "Ocean" by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He has studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lou Harrison and Anthony Braxton.

Tony Dryer has played bass guitar and toured extensively with rock groups including the Flying Luttenbachers, the Cold War, and Usurp Synapse. In recent years he has focused his attention on the acoustic double bass, and has recently completed a solo tour of the US supporting Ettrick. His trio with Jacob Felix Heule and Jacob Lindsay has a CD forthcoming on Creative Sources.

Jacob Felix Heule is a drummer and electronic musician whose music directly expresses sonic texture and timbre through the discipline of free improvisation. Spanning extremes of physicality and intensity, stasis and restraint, his music follows from the traditions of electro-acoustic improv and noise. In 2004 he founded the acoustic grind duo, Ettrick, with both members playing both drums and saxophones in a style often described as a hybrid of free jazz and black metal.

See photos from the concert.