"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

"Elan Pauer, real name Oliver Schwerdt (born 13 November 1979 in Eisenach) is a German musicologist and musician ( piano, percussion) in the field of new improvisational music.

Schwerd visited the school in Eisenach until he graduated from high school and received classical piano lessons at the local music school there. He performed his military service as a piano accompanist in the Bundeswehr's training music corps. His studies of music and cultural studies as well as the history of art at the University of Leipzig, which he received in 1999, culminated in a master's thesis on Georg Simmel and Dadaism, submitted to Klaus Christian Köhnke. In 2012, he promoted Sebastian Klotz at the Institute for Musicology of the University of Leipzig, for which he was also active as an instructor. At the center of his dissertation are the musical strategies of central actors in the scene of free improvised music following the success of free jazz and their spatial theories. He taught at the Museum für Musikinstrumente of the University of Leipzig and at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

Out of his work in musicology, Schwerdt identified the challenge faced by the current museum practice as opposed to the "new combination of the drumming combination" , as it became "in European improvisational music" of the 20th century. He is committed to safeguarding the "first-generation of European free jazz and contemporary improvised music", which is "an endangered, historically so delicate, aesthetically highly fascinating and epistemologically valuable complex of objects". [8th]

As author of a music-critical article Schwerdt wrote among other things for the Neue Musikzeitung, jazzthetik and the jazz newspaper. He also compiled accompanying texts from Günter Sommer / Wadada Leo Smith as well as Alexander von Schlippenbach / Evan Parker / Paul Lovens and Urs Leimgruber. In 2003, he founded Euphorium Productions.

Since 1999, Schwerdt has been the artistic director of the EUPHORIUM_freakestra, a project group between contemporary improvisation, jazz, new music and theater, with Günter Sommer, Friedrich Schenker, Rudi Mahall, Paul Rutherford, Ernst Ludwig Petrovsky, Frank Möbus, Wadada Leo Smith, Axel Dörner, Barre Phillips, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker, Paul Lovens, Sven-Åke Johansson, Ulrich Gumpert, Manfred Hering, Dietmar Diesner, Roger Turner and others. At the 33rd Leipziger Jazztagen 2009 he performed with the Transatlantic Freedom Suite Tentets project at the Opernhaus Leipzig. From the project set, the quartet ember developed with Urs Leimgruber, Alexander Schubert and Christian Lillinger. He also works with Lillinger and Petrowsky in the New Old Lute Trio. With Schubert and Friedrich Kettlitz, Schwerdt operates the electrified noise ensemble trnn.

For his performance as a pianist and ensemble conductor in 2006, Schwerdt received the Leipziger Jazz-Nachwuchsstipendium from the Marion Ermer Foundation. Critics Ken Waxman (Jazzword) and Rigobert Dittmann (Bad Alchemy) listen to remixes by Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Cecil Taylor and Alexander von Schlippenbach in Schwerdt's pianist."

"Christian Lillinger (born April 21, 1984 in Lübben ) is a drummer, composer and percussionist of modern creative style and new improvisational music.

Lillinger studied at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden at Günter Sommer from 2000 to 2004. Between 2001 and 2003 he was a member of the Bundesjugendjazzorchester.

Lillinger plays in the trio Gropper | Graupe | Lillinger, until 2015 under the name Hyperactive Kid, with the saxophonist Philipp Gropper and the guitarist Ronny Graupe, where he is largely confined to the conventional drum kit. In 2008, he composed his first band Christian Lillingers Grund, whose first two released albums were released at Clean Feed Records at the end of 2009 and 2013. In addition Lillinger works as a sideman with well-known musicians such as Rolf Kühn, Joachim Kühn, Miroslav Vitouš, Beat Furrer, Rudi Mahall, John Schröder, Barre Phillips, Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, Wadada Leo Smith, Frank Gratkowski, Simon Nabatov, Tobias Delius and Axel Dörner, Thomas Lehn, Michael Wollny, Louis Scyvis, Bruno Chevillon, David Liebman, Edmund Lehmugruber, Theo Jörgensmann, John Edwards, Greg Cohen, William Parker, Joe Lovano and Tony Malaby. Since 2004 he has been working continuously in the EUPHORIUM, the international ensemble of contemporary performing arts and music around the Leipzig-based Oliver Schwerdt, especially in the trio with Schwerdt alias Elan Pauer and Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky. Since 2009, Lillinger has also been working in the Klaviertrio Grünen with Achim Kaufmann and Robert Landfermann, who presented a first album on the Portuguese label Clean Feed Records in 2010. Since 2010, Lillinger has also worked in the trio Dell Lillinger Westergaard, which also performed with John Tchicai. In 2011 he founded the Trio Starlight with Petter Eldh and Wanja Slavin, who moved his debut CD 2013 to the Swiss label Unit Records. With Eldh and Slavin he also founded the Quartet Amok Amor with the American trumpeter Peter Evans, who released his first album of the same name in 2015.

Lillinger is also a member of the following groups: Rolf Kühn Unit, Henrik Walsdorff Trio, Pascal Niggenkempervision 7, Ronny Graupes Spoom, Schmittmenge Meier, Marc Schmolling Trio, Wanja Slavin Quintett, Carl Ludwig Hübschs Drift, Hübschacht, Uwe Steinmetz Stream Ensemble, The upper class, Ember, Gerhard Gschlößl's group of four, Gerhard Gschlößls G9, KUU! And also plays with Joachim Kühn in trio.

From 2012 to 2013, Christian Lillinger was a member of the board of the Union of German Jazzmusicians."