Dystopia
was formed in January, 2000 when artist/poet Liz Maw and pianist Nigel B started collaborating together. Shortly afterwards they were joined by Shinya Asakura, a sitar player from Tokyo and Shigeru Takato, a photographer, who provides the images for their live shows. Their performances are a mixture of spoken word, ambient soundscapes, projections and theatre.

Dystopia perform irregularly around Auckland and last year took part in the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Liz Maw - Liz is a Fire Horse. She was born in 1966 in Hawkes Bay, NZ and completed a diploma of visual arts (EIT) in 1995 and has continued practising as an artist/poet. She has been performing her poetry and exhibiting her art in NZ and has works in private collections. Presently she is doing a Masters in Fine Arts at University of Auckland. To see samples of her visual art - www.lizmaw.com

Nigel B - Nigel was born a Virgo in the Year of the Monkey. He received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Otago University and studied electronic composition in his post-graduate year. After four years of roaming the planet he settled in Auckland and spent the next few years managing record stores. Upon leaving the record store business, he started teaching piano and soon after he formed jazz duo nota bella and experimental performance group Dystopia with Liz Maw. During this time he also started creating ambient music and has performed in the ambient zone at the last two Gatherings. In July, 2000 Nigel founded monkey records with the release of Dystopia’s debut album the wisdom of insecurity.

Shinya - Shinya too was born in the Year of the Monkey, in Tokyo. He completed a degree in sociology and played bass guitar in several bands before leaving Japan to travel around the world. During his travels in India he fell in love with the sound of the sitar and spent the next two years studying with his two gurus in Varanasi and Kathmandu. After returning to Tokyo he bought a computer, a mixer and a sampler and proceeded to mix sitar with electronic sounds. Knowing very little about New Zealand, he journeyed here with his studio in his backpack, to make music and stayed for a year. During this time he met up with Liz Maw and Nigel B and joined Dystopia as well as producing for singer/songwriter Josephine and working on his own material. After a brief sojourn back in Tokyo, Shinya is now back in NZ and has applied for residency. His debut album Pilgrimage will be released on monkey records later in the year.

Shigeru Takato
- Shiggy was born in 1972 in Japan. He left Japan after finishing his local high school in Hiroshima for Sydney, Australia in 1991. After two years in Sydney, he jumped across to New Zealand in 1993. Shiggy completed his BE(Hon.) at University of Canterbury in 1996. He worked for a construction company for two years as a civil engineer stationed at various places throughout the North Island. While working, he found his passion for photography. He then travelled around Europe and reassured his passion for photography before ending his career as an engineer to start the second year at Elam School of Fine Arts of University of Auckland in 2000.