Axel Dörner

Axel Dörner has spent decades dismantling the trumpet to discover what else might be hiding inside it. A central figure in Berlin’s improvising scene since the mid-1990s, he developed a radically expanded vocabulary for the instrument, working with breath, valves, air pressure, minute vibrations and electronics until the trumpet is able to sound like a reed, a machine, a swarm of insects or a tiny electronic weather system. His music can be almost microscopically quiet, then erupt into dense, volatile exchanges, moving freely between extreme minimalism and the force of free jazz. Dörner has carried this restless language through an enormous range of collaborations, from Thelonious Monk interpretations to experimental electronics and large improvising ensembles.

• unbar, by Axel Dörner

• unbar, by Axel Dörner