Julius Gabriel is a saxophonist whose work explores the boundaries and intricacies of his instrument. He delves into the dynamic interplay between corporeality, acoustics, transcendence, and hypnosis. Deeply rooted in improvisation, his music draws inspiration from a diverse spectrum of genres. Regarded as a virtuoso in an existentialist sense, he is now on his fifth solo album.

Julius Gabriel was born in 1988 in East-Berlin. He began playing the saxophone at the age of ten and pursued his music studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Driven by experimental approaches, he is an enthusiastic soloist, collaborator, performer and producer. Fascinated by improvisation, the diverse spectrum of musical languages, and the shapeshifting nature of the saxophone's sound, he continuously explores the boundaries and intricacies of his instrument, delving into the dynamic interplay between corporeality, acoustics, transcendence, and hypnosis.

In 'Dream Dream Beam Beam', his first solo album from 2018, he organizes his idiosyncratic musical influences, that can be understood as the possible synthesis of a long jazz tradition interspersed with imaginative drone and noise intrusions. In 'Ætherhallen', he keeps his tendency, with a pass in the psychedelic and a detour to the minimalist. Those improvised compositions sound like eccentric dust particles dancing, in slow motion, under the twilight until the end of time, proposing to those who hear them a requiem for eternal life. Both albums were released on Portuguese label Lovers & Lollypops. In 2020 he released two distinctly different albums. In 'Eyes in Orbits' he challenges the Guinness World Record for the longest note held on a saxophone (fun fact). He expands the sound of tenor and baritone saxophone though electronics and a wall of amplifiers. The 49-minute long piece draws significant inspiration from La Monte Young's 'Compositions 1960 #7’ and was released on Indian Subcontinental Records. In 'Geminga' a ten piece album for soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, published on Creative Sources Recordings, he uses the spatial dimensions of an ancient chapel in Montemor-o-Novo to expand his improvisation. 'Tales from the Subterranean' is the fifth solo album by Julius Gabriel, which was co-released on the German label Ana Ott and the Portuguese label Lovers & Lollypops in 2024. Born out of new sounds and rhythms that the musician discovered during the pandemic, 'Tales from the Subterranean' embodies a blend of primal energy and inventive exploration across twelve tracks. The opener 'Time Riding' sets the mood, a tearing rhythm that sounds like a frenetic tap dance. It invites you to move and when you get to 'Footworks' you are all set up, merging saxophone finger percussion with a continuous siren whisper emanating from the instrument, provoking euphoria, fear and satisfaction all at once. Moving on, you start to understand the sense of discovery behind the record and the needs Julius had, like to construct a saxophone with drone capabilities and closer to an idea of natural sound. Born from darkness yet radiating with newfound light, 'Tales from the Subterranean' stands as a testament to the resilience of artistic expression. It is primal music.

During his years in Essen, he founded the agit-disco-jazz group Das Behälter with lyricist Xenia Ende, the high-flying saxophone duo About Angels and Animals with Jan Klare, and the psychedelic-noise-improv quartet Blutiger Jupiter. He has been a member of the utopian beats-krautrock-jazz-trance-noise collective The Dorf, playing alongside artists such as Caspar Brötzmann and FM Einheit. Since 2014, he has been a member of Barry Guy’s Blue Shroud Band, which brings together fourteen musicians with diverse expertise and backgrounds in baroque music, jazz, folk music, contemporary classical music, and free improvisation. Under Barry Guy’s direction, he has also played with the legendary London Jazz Composers Orchestra. Around 2017, he became an active member of the Portuguese music scene. With sound sculptor and percussionist João Pais Filipe, he formed the trance-inducing duo Paisiel. He also played with drummer Gustavo Costa and bassist Gonçalo Almeida in the dark, roaming jazz trio Ikizukuri, featuring trumpet player Susana Santos Silva on their latest album.