is a group with three musicians and one dancer. All artists came from Japan. Band leader Akira Ando, who has worked in the free jazz scene in New York for many years, combined butoh dance and the music group who plays jazz and sounds from the Far East. The group plays not only original compositions by Akira Ando and Izumi Ose, but also rearranged traditional Japanese music. The group develops free improvisations on specific topics.

Born in Sapporo, Japan, in 1955, he is a contrabassist, cellist and composer of a wide variety of music. He started his career as a musician in the seventies in clubs around Tokyo. Between 1984 and 1998 he lived in New York, and worked with various loft musicians as Cecil Taylor (Godfather of Free Jazz), Billy Bang (Afro-American violinist), William Parker (bassist, composer, band leader). He also played with a salsa band and jazz bands of almost every genre. Living in Berlin since 1998 as a freelance musician, he is part of the creative jazz scene, playing with Takabanda, Abrasaz, Boom Box, The New Trio, as well as other renowned musicians here and abroad. In 2011 he founded his own group “The JAPS “ (Jazz As Pure Spirit) with mostly Japanese artists. In recent years, Akira has been organizing several music and dance performances such as "Time Flies", "Der Sechste Sinn", "Licht und Schatten" , "Zwischen Himmel und Erde". In 2014 he was the main organizer of the event “Fukushima the Aftermath” in cooperation with the museum Story of Berlin, again performed in 2016 at the Werkstatt der Kulturen, Berlin, on occasion of the fifth anniversary of the incident at Fukushima. In addition to his performing and composing activities he contributes his experience as a contrabassist / e-bassist teaching at the Music School Neuruppin.

Started piano lessons at 6 years old. After studying law at university, she joined Nomura Makoto ́s melodica orchestra „P-blot“ in 1996 and started her career as keyboard player. Moved to Berlin in 2003 and has joined many sessions, live performances and theatre projects and toured European countries. Since 2004 she has collaborated with Tetsuya Hori(composer) and has performed a voice solo suite „The (love) Songbook,“ composed for her by Hori and toured with him in 2016, at UK, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. Since 2015, she has played at Akira Ando and the JAPS as pianist/vocalist. In 2018, she joined „HOPSCOTCH,“ the impro-musictheater led by Tristan Honsinger(cello), and appeared on the stage of A ́larm! Festival Berlin in 2019. While being influenced by free jazz, she has been exploring her unique style of voice improvisation, which transcends the boundary of music and performance.

She began learning Shamisen (three stringed Japanese folk instrument) and Min'yō (Japanese folk music) as a child growing up in Tokyō. She later changed focus to piano, flute and clarinet, before becoming a sculptor. During a trip along the Silk Road, She rediscovered Shamisen and Min'yō as a means of cross-cultural communication, and returned to Japan to learn from Tsugaru-Shamisen master Tsutomu Harada. Moved to Berlin 2017 and started her carrier as Shamisen player. She has since collaborated with many kind of musicians/artists. Not only Japanese traditional but also many more western styles such as jazz, bluegrass, pop, noise, singer/songwriter, Irish folk, and blues. She is a member of both Berlin based “The Japs” jazz band, and founding member of the all-female "Shamisen trio Mitsune".

born in Tokyo. 1978- 1991 member of the Butoh company DAIRAKUDAN under the direction of Akaji Maro in Japan. Participation in various international festivals such as the Festival d´Avignon, tours in the USA, Australia and Canada has lived in Berlin since 1993 and works with various theater groups, musicians as a dancer, performer and choreographer in Germany, Italy, Russia, Poland and Israel. Solo dance performance in Germany, Mexico, Chile and Argentina since 2011 as dance trainer at Theater Thikwa. Since 2013, Swiss saxophonist Marcel Schmid has been working intensively on a series of improvisations. 2015 the MBSR basic training at the "Arbor Seminare" Workshops in Germany, Denmark, Chile, Mexico and Argentina.