You know you've crossed the line when you're out to impress an audience of ... microorganisms. But for improvisational Swiss viola player Charlotte Hug, it's progress.

"I'm going into the world of microorganisms to play for plankton, the daphnia magna which react to my music when it's transmitted into the water," she enthuses from her home in Zurich. "It's a cross-science project, and a biologist will be doing some research [to see] if these little plankton communicate with my music."

For the uninitiated, daphnia magna are crustaceans that eat algae and microorganisms. They're kidney-shaped, transparent and possess a single eye compound. You can often see the last meal they've eaten.

Hug fits in perfectly with Alternativa's 2006 agenda. Bold, subversive and going where other festivals fear to tread, Alternativa has become an end-of-year-ritual for all forms of rock, jazz, pop and contemporary classical music from across the globe.

Hug will perform as part of a duo with French pianist Frederick Blondy.

Hug has a proclivity to change her bow technique at a rapid pace. By using a soft bow, for example, she's capable of producing between four to eight voices without the aid of electronics. And, with her wet bow, she enters a whole new sonic spectrum.

Atmosphere is critical to Hug's performances, which is why she tends to opt for unusual venues to play. Recent excursions have included the Rhone Glacier and an S&M torture chamber. "If it's in an artistic context, and if there's an artistic reason to do it, it seems absolutely necessary for me to play in such places," she says. "In London, I played at a house of detention which was a prison in the 16th century, but also a shelter during the Second World War. A space which is a prison and shelter at the same time was very interesting for my work."

Together, Hug and Blondy can be quite unnerving. At a show in Kraków a few weeks ago, Hug used a variety of bows, including a soft bow and a twist bow, while, on piano, Blondy could hardly keep still, constantly jumping up and reaching into the back of his piano like a crazed car mechanic.

There are plenty of other unusual acts on the bill this year. Akropolis turns Japanese with electro experimentalists Satoru Wono and Chikanari Shukuka. As a composer, producer, DJ, writer, critic and assistant professor of "Sound and Design" at the University of Tama in Tokyo, Wono is a master of bleeps and blips. For his Prague debut, he'll be using his laptop to "pour new wine into old wine skins" — not literally, unfortunately. Instead, his set will be "a representation of various dance forms from the classical era with the digital sounds of today," he says. "The stage will be fun for both experimental maniacs and techno-pop fans."

Away from computers, there's some twisted country and hip-hop, courtesy of U.S. artist Sandy Dillon, who sounds as if she's just stepped out of the movie The Exorcist on her latest album, Pull The Strings. Still, with comparisons to the likes of P.J. Harvey and Patti Smith, she's a must-see. In Prague, she'll be joined by husband Ray Majors (ex-Mott The Hoople guitarist) and Sir Eddie Real (drummer with Alabama 3).

For noise saturation, it's probably worth investigating Czech outfit Vitrhol and Urbsounds from Slovakia. The latter describe themselves as "playing electronic music with a hedonistic edge." For their Alternativa appearance, they promise "Chaos and noise. Synths, samplers, drum machines, computer and home-made electronics."