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Tobias Delius was born on 15 July 1964 in Oxford, England. He began playing saxophone in 1980 in the German Ruhr region. In 1983/84 he lived in Mexico City where he played in the “Cuarteto Mexicano de Jazz” led by pianist Francixco Téllez.
Delius moved to Amsterdam in 1984 and studied for a short while at the Sweelinck Conservatorium. He quickly became involved with Amsterdam improvisers and dropped his studies to immerse himself in the improvised music scene. In 1990 he was awarded the Podiumprijs from the organisation Stichting Jazz in Nederland. He has worked in Europe and overseas with such musicians as Steve Lacy (October Meeting ’91), Louis Moholo’s Viva-la-black (South Africa ’93), Bill Frisell, Mark Feldman and Trio Clusone (Clusone Jazz ’93), Misha Mengelberg (“Pollo de Mare”, Angelica ’96 in Bologna), Steve Beresford (“Signals for Tea”, Vancouver ’98), Jeb Bishop, Kent Kessler & Hamid Drake (Chicago 2001) and Ray Anderson (Rotterdam, ’01).
Tobias Delius leads his own quartet with Tristan Honsinger (cello), Joe Williamson (double bass) and Han Bennink (drums). The CDs “The Heron” (ICP 033), “Toby’s Mloby” (ICP 034) and “Pelikanismus” (ICP 039) were enthousiastically received both at home and abroad.
Delius has a duo with bassist Wilbert de Joode, forms a trio with keyboardplayer Cor Fuhler and various drummers (Louis Moholo and Paul Lovens to name two), and initiated the Trio San Francisco with reed players Sean Bergin and Daniele D’Agaro. He has recently formed apa ini, a group with Wilbert de Joode, Hilary Jeffery (trombone) and Serigne Gueye (djembe).
He can be heard in a variety of groups, including Available Jelly, Sean Bergin’s MOB, Chris Abelen Quintet, Joost Buis and his Famous Astronotes, Frank van Bommel Quartet and Curtis Clark. >> www.doek.org
In 1997, Brice Soniano starts learning contrabass with Jean Ané at the music school of Béziers (south of France).
After a series of workshops with different masters (Bernard Cazauran, Jean-Paul Celea, Eddie Gomez...), Hein van de Geyn offers him to study at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands where, in 2005, he graduates from the jazz and classical departments.
The years in the Netherlands serve as "laboratory" years. Brice Soniano constructs his bow gesture inspired by dutch Jean Paul Everts, discovers new techniques and sonorities thanks to norwegian Knut Guettler and plays in symphonic orchestras as well as various contemporary and chamber music ensembles. He is in constant exchange with musicians, composers, dancers, visual or electronic artists coming from different horizons and in 2003 he records the album: "The Perfect Peace Process Plan" with jazz guitar player David Golek. He participates in the creation of compositions dedicated to the doublebass (a.o."Alone Together" by Fabian Svensson, 2003; "Shiny Piece for Joa and Brice" by Chen Wagner, 2004; "The Parade" by Mathis Nitschke, 2005) and in Amsterdam, Maurice Horsthuis invites him to become a "gang member" of his string ensemble "Jargon" where he meets Jeffrey Bruinsma and Jasper Leclercq.
His love for improvisation being a major element in the music brings him to meetings on stage with musicians like Michael Vatcher, Ernst Reisinger and Oene van Geel. His duo "Rawfishboys" with clarinetist Joachim Badenhorst is formed as well as the trio "Par4chemins" with Toma Gouband and Harmen Fraanje.
2006 is dedicated to a stay in Cameroon, experiencing daily life with a population of Baka pygmies and later a visit around West Africa.
Toma Gouband plays percussions with drums, stones, cymbow, feather dusters, leaves, wind & movement. At the moment he plays with musicians like Nelson Veras, Michael Moore, Harmen Fraanje, Magic Malik, Kim Myhr, Benoit Delbecq, Clayton Thomas, Sebastien Boisseau, Will Guthrie. He also performs in solo. For his own project "Aneris", he released 3 cd’s on the Label Cristalrecords. Toma is prgrammer for the festival "Ecouter pour l'instant" and runs the organization “ Astropie” which organises concerts and an upcoming netlabel. >> www.par4chemins.com