Regarded as "one of the finest creative improvised music festivals in the world" (Paris Transatlantic), The No Idea Festival has brought some of the most cutting-edge international and regional artists in the world of improvised music into new collaborations for the past six years. Held in Austin, Texas, the festival has frequently included additional performances in neighboring Texas cities. This year, curator Chris Cogburn brings one night of his festival to Houston. The evening will include three sets, featuring combinations of seven performers.

Art League Houston and Nameless Sound are pleased to announce a concert featuring Paul Winstanley and The Nameless Sound Ensemble, which will be presented at the Art League on Sunday, October 12, 2008 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. General admission is $10, $8 for students, and young people 18 years and younger free. Seating is limited and is on a first come, first serve basis.

Paul Winstanley, a.k.a. Paul Guilford, will perform on electric bass and electronics, and will be accompanied by the Nameless Sound Ensemble which features Chris Cogburn (percussion), David Dove (trombone), Ryan Edwards (guitar, voice), Sandy Ewen (guitar), Sonia Flores (bass, voice), Lucas Gorham (guitar, lap steel, electronics) and Jason Jackson (saxophones).

Paul Winstanley is from New Zealand, and resided in Houston during the late 1980's and 1990's. He is returning to the city for the first time in 12 years in a residency sponsored by Nameless Sound and Creative New Zealand. His residency includes performance/recording sessions with regional artists and workshops with The Nameless Sound Youth Ensemble, as well as workshops at Houston area high schools.

Winstanley has been in the improvisational/experimental music scene under a never ending stream of assumed names for about 15 years, with each pseudonym corresponding to a new project, each one conceptually or stylistically different from the other. In 1996 he appeared as "Paul Guilford", using a bass triggered synthesizer to play freely improvised music with The Dave Dove/Paul Duo, and recording slabs of avant-ambient-squall as "p.h. Locasta". (David Dove is the Executive Director and Founder of Nameless Sound, and a former member of the legendary Houston band Sprawl.) Around this same time, Winstanley began experimenting with electronic feedback using a mixer and effects processor, and later that year made the first Sci-Hi solo recording. His present list of instrumentation includes: electric bass guitar, electronic feedback, bass drum, percussion, balloons, and synthesizer.

This year Winstanley has performed on electric bass with traditional. blues/gospel duo - Storehouse, and the modern jazz quartet Lippizanas, as well as occasional stints with the William John Hooker Trio, Audible<2, Joe Bell Trio, The Fertility Festival, The Calypso Kings, Sorry See-Saw, The Pacific New Music Ensemble and a variety of ad-hoc groups. This year he has also taken Sci Hi to the Now Now festival in Sydney, Australia in March and to the I Am In Dust festival in San Francisco in October.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten´s creative and highly original bass playing has been highly regarded all over the world and he has done several performances with major international artists such as Evan Parker (UK), Paul Lytton (UK), Joe McPhee (US), Joe Lovano (US), Yusef Lateef (US), Tony Oxley (UK), Iain Ballamy (UK), Dave Liebman (US), Chris Potter (US), Zim Ngqvana (SA), Benoit Delbeq (FRA), Dr.L.Subramaniam (IND), Billy Cobham (US), Jean Luc Pounty (FRA). He has frequently appeared at important international jazz festivals in Den Haag, Liége, Montraux, Athens/Georgia, Cape Town, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Paris, Istanbul, Saalfelden, Nice, Groningen, San Francisco, San Sebastian, Lüc, Nancy, London, Perpignan, Molde, Perth, Kongsberg, Berlin, Houston and legendary clubs such as New Morning in Paris, Quasimodo in Berlin, Ronny Scotts and Pizza Express in London, Knitting Factory and Tonic in New York, Empty Bottle in Chicago, Blue Note in Yokohama and Hemlock Tawern in San Francisco. His musical expression is based on the language of jazz and improvised music, acoustic and electronic, but his interest in rock and ethnic music also shows through his collaborations with the Norwegian rock bands Motorpsycho and Cato Salsa Experience as well as his work through Rikskonsertene. In July 2003 he released his solo-CD "Double bass" on the norwegian label SOFA. He has at the tender age of 33 already managed to establish himself as one of the most important exponents of the younger generation of musicians on the european scene today. In July 2004 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten was awarded Kongsberg Jazzfestival official "Vitalprisen" - the highest award for jazz musicians in Norway.