Julius Gabriel is a saxophonist whose work delves into the boundaries and intricacies of his instruments. He explores the dynamic interplay between corporeality, acoustics, transcendence, and hypnosis. His musical foundation is deeply rooted in improvisation, drawing inspiration from an eclectic spectrum of genres, including jazz, folk, classical, psychedelic, noise, minimalism, drone, and ambient music.
As an enthusiastic soloist, he has cultivated various branches of solo performances, continually evolving his craft. In his acoustic solo concerts he immerses himself in a meditative manner within the unique spatial dimensions and resonances of each performance space. Alternatively, he crafts otherworldly soundscapes through electronic manipulation and delay loops, enthralling audiences at physical volumes or transforms the saxophone into a percussive instrument, meticulously capturing the mechanical sounds and elevating them to the forefront. Julius Gabriel's musical odyssey is exemplified in several solo albums, a testament to his versatile and innovative approach.
As a collaborator he co-founded the trance-inducing duo Paisiel with sound sculptor and percussionist João Pais Filipe, the dark roaming jazz group Ikizukuri with Gustavo Costa and Gonçalo Almeida, most recently reinforced by Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, the agitational avant-garde group Das Behälter,the psychedelic jazz noise quartet Blutiger Jupiter, and the reeds duo About Angels and Animals. He has been a member of the utopian beats, krautrock, jazz trance, noise collective The Dorf led by Jan Klare. He is a member of the Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band, which brings together 14 musicians with diverse expertise and backgrounds in baroque music, jazz, folk music, contemporary classical music and free improvisation, and has played with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra under Guy's direction.
Born and raised in East Berlin, he began his musical education at public music schools, further enriched by the underground club culture. He completed a BA in Jazz Performing Arts at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, with additional coursework in the Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media and involvement in New Music ensemble projects. He received a scholarship abroad to Porto, Portugal and was artist in residence at the Indian Music Experience Museum in Bangalore, India.