Julius Gabriel was born in 1988 in East Berlin. He studied at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, completing courses at both the Jazz Department and the Institute for Computer Music and Electronic Media, taking part in orchestral and chamber music projects in contemporary music, as well as projects at the Institute of Contemporary Dance, before graduating with a Bachelor of Arts as a Saxophone Performing Artist.
Dedicated to a wide spectrum of musical practices, Gabriel is interested in the embodied phenomena of improvisation and composition, engaging with the dynamic interplay between corporeality, acoustics, and transcendence. In his solo work, he explores the boundaries and intricacies of the saxophone, integrating acoustic and electroacoustic approaches, innovative techniques, and expansive sonic treatments. He can be regarded as a virtuoso in an existentialist sense, with an expanding body of solo performances and recordings.
He is a member of the Blue Shroud Band, an international ensemble of fourteen musicians with diverse musical expertise and backgrounds in baroque, contemporary, jazz and improvised music, and has also performed with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra — both directed by composer and bassist Barry Guy.
Julius Gabriel has played a central role in the realisation of numerous collaborative projects. Examples include his work with percussionist and sonic sculptor João Pais Filipe, with whom he recorded the trance-inducing albums Paisiel and Unconscious Death Wishes. He also co-founded an avant-garde group with transfeminist lyricist and performer Xenia Ende, producing their transgressive large-scale works The World Is All That Is The Case and Star of the Future. In a quintet with Savina Yannatou, Agustí Fernández, Barry Guy, and Ramón López, he explored collective composition and improvisational form across seven movements, released as In the Light of the Current Myth.