"Axel Dörner (born 26 April 1964 in Cologne, Germany) is a German jazz musician (trumpet and piano) and composer.

Dörner studied piano in the Dutch town Arnhem (1988-89) and at the Music Academy in Cologne (1989-1996). From 1991 he studied trumpet with Malte Burba, and during his studies he collaborated with trumpeter Bruno Light in the "The Street Fighters Duo". At this time he also joined the ensembles "The Street Fighters Quartet" and "The Street Fighters Double Quartet" together with Matthias Schubert, Bruno Leicht, and Claudio Puntin. In addition the "Axel Dörner Quartet" was initiated (with Frank Gratkowski, Hans Schneider and Martin Blume). With saxophonist Matthias Petzold. he participated on the albums Lifelines and Psalmen Und Lobgesänge.

Dörner has resided in Berlin since 1994, and occurs in the most diverse settings like "The London Jazz Composers Orchestra" and with "Hedros" (together with Mats Gustafsson, Günter Christmann, Barry Guy and others). Since then he has contributed on more than 50 album recordings.

Dörner is distinguished mainly by his versatility. He bouth play the more traditional Bebop, just like he fits in to classic Free Jazz or electronic music. He playd with Otomo Yoshihide at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in 2005. Dörner play both solo concerts and collaborates with his trio "TOOT" (together with Phil Minton and Thomas Lehn) and "Die Anreicherung" with Christian Lillinger, Håvard Wiik and Jan Roder, and in Ken Vandermarks "Territory-Band". Dörner is an integral part of the Berlin scene of experimental new improvisational music. Dörner was given special attention for his interpretation of all compositions by Thelonious Monk, with the pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and his own band "Die Enttäuschung" released on a three CD album (Monks Casino, Complete 2005)."-Wikipedia

"Leonel Kaplan (Buenos Aires, 1973) plays the cornet. He has been part of the international experimental music and free improvisation scene since the early 2000s, working between free jazz, European reductionism, and the post-Onkyo currents.

Paul Serralheiro, writing in Squid's Ear, placed his work outside the era of Miles - the trumpet (and now the cornet) treated as a resonating body, a drone device, a breath zone before a tone. Dan Warburton, in Paris Transatlantic, called it "relaxed intensity". The descriptions stuck.

He has recorded with Axel Dörner and Diego Chamy (Absence, Creative Sources, 2005), Audrey Chen and Nate Wooley (Silo, Utech, 2006), Tetuzi Akiyama and Edén Carrasco (Moments of Falling Petals, Dromos, 2009), Christof Kurzmann (Una Casa / Observatorio, Casa Corp, Pandemic Conversations), John Butcher (Shortening Distance, L'innomable, 2013), Klaus Filip (Tocando Fondo, Another Timbre, 2015), and on his own (Trumpet, Another Timbre). Live and on record he has worked with Michel Doneda, Lê Quan Ninh, Tatsuya Nakatani, Greg Kelley, Franz Hautzinger, Ivar Grydeland, and Wade Matthews, among many others.

From the early 2000s through 2024 he kept a parallel practice composing for theatre, dance, and light installations - Hotel der Immigranten with Anna-Sophie Mahler (Kaserne Basel, Gessnerallee Zürich, Hellerau Dresden), Orlando with Julie Beauvais and Christophe Fellay (FIBA Buenos Aires), and pieces with Nicole Bindler and Ly Thanh Thien. The longest thread was with light artist Aleksandra Stratimirović: Underworld, Brilliance - Inside the Sun, Great Minds, Color Wheels, Waves, shown across Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Singapore, and Brazil.

He has lived in Belgrade since 2018. He plays regularly at KC Grad, UK Parobrod, Club Ciglana, Ring Ring Festival, and the Belgrade Festival of Light, in formations with Marina Džukljev, Milana Zarić, Branislav Radojković, Ilia Belorukov, María Valencia, and Franz Hautzinger, and brings longtime interlocutors - Filip, Kurzmann, Hautzinger - through the city."