As with any improvisation and in particular with larger groups the possibility exists for it to be a total mess - un organized combinations of ideas or musicians competing with each other to be heard. This recording you hold in your hands is a testament to the possibility of the opposite - 13 musicians of diverse backgrounds and styles working together in total harmony to create a real time composition with incredible focus and restraint. Each musician is free to create their own part but gives over control of when to play and the dynamics of their part to the conductor. Famoudou Don Moye as conductor (as well as musician) is engaged in the same improvisational dance as the rest of the musicians, creating the score to the composition as it unfolds and so co creating the composition with the band. The resulting blend - elements of african/american/european folk with experimental/electronic/avant garde, jazz, classical and rock - is a true kind of world music naturally derived un sanitized and without pretense.

This recording is from the 2014 APositsia and includes the following musicians
Alexei Pliousnine - St. Petersburg, Russia. Guitarist, composer, organizer and music therapist. Byzantine Art Punk Ensemble, Silence Corporation.
Baba Sissoko - Bamako, Mali/Italy. Multi instrumentalist, singer and composer. A Djeli by birth, Baba is the descendent of a great and ancient dynasty of Malian Griots.
Dmitry Kakhovsky - St. Petersburg, Russia. Bassist, percussionist, composer. Totalitarian Music Sect, Byzantine Art Punk Ensemble.
Dok Gregory - New York City, USA. Electronic musician, guitarist, composer and producer. Plan 23, Byzantine Art Punk Ensemble, Zero Gravity Thinkers, Silence Corporation.
Dror Feilor - Stockholm, Sweden. Saxophonist, electronic musician and composer. Lokomotiv Konkret.
Famoudou Don Moye - Chicago, USA/France. Drummer, percussionist, composer, conductor. Art Ensemble Of Chicago, The Leaders, Detroit Free Jazz.
Henry Kaiser - San Francisco, USA. Guitarist, composer, producer. Fred Frith, David Lindley, Wadada Leo Smith.
Konstantine Sukhan - St. Petersburg/Omsk, Russia. Trumpeter, composer. Grazhdanskaya Oborona.
Mikhail Kolovsky - St. Petersburg, Russia. Tubaist. Aukyton.
Pavel Mikheev - St. Petersburg, Russia. guitarist, drummer, electronic musician, composer, producer. Eject, Silence Corporation.
Peter Stampfel - New York City, USA. Banjoist, fiddler, vocalist, composer. Atomic Meta Pagans, Holy Modal Rounders, The Fugs, Stampfel/Lewis Band, Ether Frolic Mob.
Timo Viallainen - Helsinki, Finland. Hurdy Gurdy player, multi instrumentalist, composer, producer.
Vladimir Makarov - Smolensk, Russia. Cellist, composer, painter.