Bass lessons and courses in Berlin
“…a deep dive into the darkest, most unexpected possibilities of the upright bass. Endless sounds to explore: scrapes, scratches and atonal chaos… this will definitely find its way into the horror or true crime projects we regularly work on.”
The Blair Brothers
LATEST RELEASE:
SEVER – Inlet Audio – Instrument for Kontakt 8 Player [listen/buy]
Bassists, I have noticed, seem obsessed with the idea of having a ‘sound’, like it’s a little, powerful daemon that follows each of them about. I think this might translate to an idea of Tone. James has a great ‘sound’. Full, rich, strong; Bit like the coffee he makes every time we invite ourselves round to his for brunch…
Rachel Sermanni
James Banner (1991) was born in Dudley, England and has been based in Berlin since 2015, working as an improvising musician and composer of mainly electroacoustic music that exists on the borders of improvisation, noise, rock, jazz and contemporary music. Current projects include: Borage with Megan Jowett; TARTARUGA with Sofía Salvo, Megan Jowett and Dae Bryant (debut album on ears&eyes Records, February 2027); the collaborative trio Nebbia/Banner/Andrzejewski: Presencia; Practically Married concert series at Sowieso with Declan Forde; class-work; commissioning, workshopping/recording/performing new solo pieces for double bass and presenting his solo programme; Different People with Lina Nyberg and Birgitta Flick; and performing regularly as part of Orchestral Sessions at Berghain. James also works in post-production sound and scores/music for films and documentaries.
As a performer and collaborator, he has worked with artists and organisations including: Quadrature (#bebeethoven, with Podium Esslingen); Max Andrzejewski’s HÜTTE; Berliner Ensemble (Mythos/Nibelungen); Maxim Gorki Theatre (Salome); Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (Happy End, Renatured with Chor Zur Welt); Akademietheater Regensburg/Kammermusikfestival Regensburg (An den Rändern der Risse … in der Lücke das Grün); Deutsche Oper (SATISFACTIONACTION); Berliner Philharmonie (with Zaho de Sagazan); Outernational (Songs of Wounding with Mariana Sadovska, and EXT INC / Remember Me with Aida Shirazi and Emre Dündar); Han Bennink; Roger Eno; the Django Reinhardt Orchestra with Stochelo Rosenberg, Lulo Reinhardt and Sandro Roy; Rachel Sermanni (So It Turns); Vilde&Inga (Berlin tour with John Hollenbeck, Toby Delius and Declan Forde); Jazz Alloy with Lina Nyberg, Laura Jurd and Daniel Karlsson (Musikcentrum Öst, Stockholm); NDR Bigband; Centrala Birmingham (Art and Brexit talk); and Berghain (Orchestral Sessions). His festival appearances include MaerzMusik (Miya Masaoka’s Cubistics); Beethovenfest Bonn; Leipziger Jazztage (Fish and Chips with Anna-Lena Schnabel, Florian Weber and James Maddren, and The Floor Is Lava! by Nick Dunston); IMPULS (with Tempus Konnex Ensemble); Jazz&TheCity Salzburg; Jazzfestival Saalfelden; Stockholm Jazz Festival; JazzBaltica; Copenhagen Jazz Festival; Jazztopad, Wrocław; Open Music, Graz; Rudolstadt Festival; Hidden Door Festival, Edinburgh; soundfestival Aberdeen; and Festa do Jazz at CCB, Lisbon. He also performs on double bass with Birgitta Flick (Quartet/Quintet/Septet, including at the Deutscher Jazzpreis 2026); Jörg Hochapfel (Bruchgold und Koralle); Tilo Weber (Four Fauns and Five Fauns); Fritz Moshammer’s VIER; and Decateto Robalo + Porta-Jazz with Hans Koller.
As a composer, he writes for settings from orchestra to solo voice, often combining notation, improvisation and electronics. His works include Two Movements for Three Guitars, premiered by the Fractal Guitar Trio in Mexico City (2023); anti-dirge for chamber orchestra, improvising soloist and electronics, premiered by the London Chamber Orchestra at St John’s Smith Square, London (2022); class-work, commissioned by Leipziger Jazztage and premiered at the Moritzbastei, Leipzig (2022); The Whitewashed Wall for soprano Stephanie Lamprea, premiered at Roulette, Brooklyn (2020); An August Midnight for harpist and mezzo-soprano Ruth Lee, commissioned by The Arc Project, York (2020); and Concertino for Concert Band, written with Two Rivers Concert Band through the Making Music/Sound and Music/PRS Foundation/BBC Adopt A Composer scheme, premiered in 2019 and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (2020). He has also composed an electroacoustic piece collaboratively with toddlers, with Make The Paint Dance and funded by Arts Council England. His film work includes sound design and scores for short films such as Sexy Time Soup (dir. Gabrielle Pfeiffer), winner of Best Comedy Short Film at the Berlin Kiez Film Festival 2025, and No Party For Old Women (dir. Helery Kuld), selected for its world premiere in the National Competition at PÖFF Shorts 2026, part of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
As a soloist, he has performed across Europe at venues and festivals including Jazz&TheCity Salzburg (Kollegienkirche), Les Impairs du Lundi at Studio Caracol in Paris, Sonoscopia in Porto, Cossoul in Lisbon, Improbellissimo at Theatre Vrijburcht in Amsterdam, and Ideas of Noise Festival in Birmingham, where he premiered his first solo commission, The things my parents said about childhood, opening for Nate Wooley. In Berlin, his solo performances include Archives Sonores at DB Studios, Berlin Solo Impro at Acker Stadt Palast, experimontag at Madame Claude, the Disfigured Rivers series at Sowieso, and Donau115.
His solo work often extends into other disciplines, including Paula Doepfner’s performance/installation/destruction for the trees to drop at St Matthäus, Berlin, and BACH Leuchtet!, a concert series combining music, spoken word and James Turrell’s light installation at the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof, Berlin. His solo releases include his debut album solo, released digitally and on limited-edition cassette and CD in March 2022 and featured in a profile on SWR2, and the live recordings solo live at Kollegienkirche and solo live at Jugend[widerstands]museum Galiläakirche. His most recent solo collaboration is SEVER with Inlet Audio, released in October 2026: a horror-scoring instrument built entirely from his long-form solo double bass improvisations.
During the pandemic, he started his Call For Pieces project, which built a community of more than 25 composers from around the world, offering free online composition and double bass workshops, commissioning new works and producing high-quality recordings for composers’ portfolios. The project grew into his workshop Composing for Double Bass and Improvising Musicians, which he has led at Leeds Conservatoire and the University of Sheffield; the full archive of student pieces is on YouTube. Through the project and a GVL Scholarship, he commissioned three new solo pieces for double bass by Jamie Elless, Yaz Lancaster and Nick Dunston, developed collaboratively in online workshops and premiered at Donau115, Berlin, in 2023.
As a first-generation, state-educated student and artist/musician from a working-class background, James is committed to using his current platform and privilege to widen representation in his own artistic projects, call for equity (especially in artistic development opportunities and higher education) and increase access to adventurous and original improvised music for young people. He has spoken on class origins and access to music at Jazzforum Darmstadt, and presented the lecture discussion A Life in Classism with the Deutsche Jazzunion at jazzahead! in Bremen. He is also active as an educator, offering bass lessons in Berlin and online through his private bass and electroacoustic composition studio, and from 2018–2023 he was a workshop facilitator with Make The Paint Dance and Senior Lecturer in double and electric bass at Leeds Conservatoire, as well as designing and leading modules on collaborative composition and free improvisation. Since 2023, James has co-hosted B:jazz, the podcast of the IG Jazz Berlin, interviewing local and international musicians and other artists about their work and the social, musical and political situation of the Berlin jazz and improvised music scene. You will also find James as a concert manager and bartender usually once per week at Berlin’s well-known club for improvised music, Sowieso.
“…Banner’s bass alone sounds immensely colorful when played solo and lets tones and their sequences emerge in seemingly infinite numbers of smaller tone fragments. Everything sounds sonorous, warm and with so many unbelievably fine, tonal gradations. Banner shows again and again, without putting himself in the foreground when the band plays together, what enormous variety of sound and richness of color he can express with his instrument…”
Claus Volke
CALENDAR
202
2026
11.9. – Orchestral Sessions Vol 5 – Halle am Berghain
16.9. – Practically Married w/João Lopes Pereira – Cossoul, Lisbon
17.9. – Practically Married w/João Lopes Pereira – Café Dias, Lisbon
19.9. – Clara Haberkamp/Regis Molina Group – Hainer See Musikfest
24.9. – Declan Forde Trio – Orania, Berlin
26.9. – Hot Club of Berlin – ZigZag, Berlin
28.9. – Screening of ‘A City of Two Tales’ (Romain Grésillon, James Banner sound design) – The Local Hostel, Queens, NYC
2.10. – Schwelbrand – Ensemblefest @ CANK, Berlin
4.10. – Declan Forde Quintet – ZigZag, Berlin
7.10. – Colin Webster/Matthew Grigg/James Banner/Andrew Lisle – Kühlspot, Berlin
12.10. – Hot Club of Berlin – Eberswalde Film Festival
20.10. – SEVER – Instrument for Kontakt 8 Player by Inlet Audio – Preview here
23.10. – Declan Forde Quintet (w/ Toby Delius / Michaël Attias / Dae Bryant / Declan Forde) – Donau115, Berlin
25.10. – Django Reinhardt Orchestra – Gypsy Jazz Tage, Munich
29.10. – Django Reinhardt Orchestra – ZigZag, Berlin
10.11. World Premiere of No Party For Old Women [short-film by Helery Kuld] at PÖFF Shorts 2026 Film Festival – Hall 1, Kino Artis, Talinn, Estoni (James Banner, music and sound design)
21.11. – Django Reinhardt Orchestra – ZigZag, Berlin
11.12. – Django Reinhardt Orchestra – ZigZag, Berlin
2027
Presencia UK Tour
13.2. – Birmingham
14.-17.2. TBC
18.5. – Sunville (Sofia Jernberg (Music), Fiston Mwanza Mujila (Text) und Stephanie Thiersch (Regie) – Vienna
RELEASES
UPCOMING RELEASES
City of Trees (feature film by Alexandra Swarens, LA) audio restoration and post-production sound – 2027
SEVER (instrument for Kontakt 8 Player by Inlet Audio) – 20.10.2026
Borage – 2027
TARTARUGA – ears&eyes Records – 2027
TEXTS (with guests Nick Dunston, Liz Kosack, Anna Webber, Michaël Attias) – 2027 [listen / preorder]
DISCOGRAPHY / FILM / TV / RADIO / INSTALLATIONS / BOOKS
Different People (Lina Nyberg / Birgitta Flick / James Banner) – 3.7.2026 [listen/buy]
Cherry Charm (short film by Miruna Udrea, Berlin) sound design, edit, score, mix – 2026
A City of Two Tales (proof of concept by Romain Grésillon, NYC) sound design, edit, mix – 2026
Please Don’t Smoke (short film by Alexandra Swarens, LA) sound design, edit, mix – 2026
First Anniversary (short film by Alexandra Swarens, LA) sound design, edit, mix – 2026
No Party For Old Women (short film by Helery Kuld, Berlin) sound design, edit, score, mix – 2026
Nebbia / Banner / Andrzejewski: Presencia (ears&eyes Records) – 01.12.2025 [listen/buy]
Sexy Time Soup (Comedy short-film by Gabrielle Pfeiffer) sound design, edit, score, mix, vfx – 2025 (independant) – winner Best Comedy Short Film, Berlin Kiez Film Festival 2025 // nominated No / Low Budget SHORT to the Point Film Festival // winner Best Comedy Short, Bangkok Movie Awards // Official Selection Short and Sweet Yorkshire Film Festival // Official Selection Ha Ha Harvest Comedy and Film Festival New Jersey
Funeral For A Wizard (short-film by Mariska Koruba) sound design, edit, score, mix – 2025
FASSADEN (Docufilm by Alina Cyranek / Music by Freya Arde) double bass – 2025
Practically Married with Tobias Delius and Han Bennink: Live in Berlin – 2025 [listen/buy]
Borage (Megan Jowett / James Banner) – DRESSAGE – 2024 (Robalo Music) [listen/buy]
Tilo Weber – Five Fauns – 2024 (Malletmuse) [listen/buy]
Songs of Wounding (with Mariana Sadovska, KURBASY, music by Max Andrzejewski) – 2024 (Pantopia Music) [listen]
Destination Unknown – Die Zukunft des Jazz (The Future of Jazz) – 2024 (Wolke Press) [more info/buy]
Practically Married – Practically Married – 2023 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Bruchgold und Koralle – Bruchgold und Koralle – 2023 (KLAENG Records) [listen/buy]
Rachel Sermanni – Dreamer Awake – 2023 (Navigator Records) [listen/buy]
Borage – transitory – 2023 (self-release) [listen/buy]
Il Sogno della Farfalla, L’Oceano del Qi – immersive installation by Lola Danon at Schneiberg Museum, Turin (composer: Nina Danon) – 2022
James Banner: USINE – how it will be after – 2022 (KLAENG Records) [listen / buy]
Practically Married + João Lopes Pereira – ao Vivo no Café Dias – 2022 (Robalo Music) [listen/buy]
James Banner – solo – 2022 (self-release) [listen/buy]
Max Andrzejewski – Mythos – 2022 (Backlash Music) [listen/buy]
Birgitta Flick Quartet – Miniatures and Fragments – 2022 (Doublemoon/Challenge) [listen/buy]
Meschiya Lake & The New Movement – Looking The World Over – 2022 (Sungroove Records) [listen/buy]
alien space sound propellant – 2022 (self-release, commissioned by Arts Council England) [listen]
James Banner: USINE – 2020 (RBB Kulturradio, live broadcast)
Tilo Weber Quartet: Four Fauns – Faun Renaissance – 2021 (Malletmuse) [listen / buy]
BBC Radio 3 in Concert: Concertino for Concert Band – 2020 [listen]
Alex Roth’s MultiTraction Orchestra – Emerge Entangled – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Stephanie Lamprea – Unaccompanied: Tiny-Works For Quarantine – Vol 1 – 2020 (self-release) [listen/buy]
Practically Married with Will Howard and Jordan Dinsdale – Short Step – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Practically Married – Inventions In Time Vol. 1 – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Practically Married – Inventions In Time Vol. 2 – 2020 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Cansu Tanrıkulu – 2019 (RBB Kulturradio, live broadcast)
Mark Pringle – Book Of Haikus – 2019 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Rachel Sermanni – So It Turns – 2019 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Ancient Infinity Orchestra – Cosmosaic – 2019 (Polyscope) [listen]
Indra Rios-Moore – 2018 (Deutschlandfunk Kultur, live broadcast)
James Banner’s USINE – 2018 (JazzHausMusik) [listen / buy]
Practically Married featuring João Lopes Pereira – Circus – 2018 (self-release) [listen / buy]
Stemeseder/Banner/Alunni – WOOD / GUTS – 2018 (self-release) [listen / buy – all proceeds to BLM UK]
Birgitta Flick Quartet – Color Studies – 2018 (Doublemoon/Challenge) [listen / buy]
Liebesfilm – Directed by Emma Rosa Simon und Robert Bohrer [soundtrack] – 2018 [watch preview]
Salome – Directed by Ersan Mondtag [soundtrack] – 2018 [watch preview]
Grand Loup et Petit Loup – 2016 (audiobook, Trois Petits Points) [listen]
Mark Pringle – A Moveable Feast – 2014 (Stoney Lane) [listen / buy]
BBC Introducing: Antelope – 2014
The Yamaha New Jazz Sessions – 2013 (Yamaha/Jazzwise) [listen]
PRESS
Portrait by Deutschlandfunk Kultur [DE]
Portrait in Der Tagesspiegel [DE]
Review of The Whitewashed Wall in Cleveland Classical
“James Banner’s USINE is 45 minutes of unobvious and unpredictable music” – Robert Ratajczak [LongPlay]
”idiosyncratic, „oblique“, intense and humorous” – Nicky Pawlow [Tagesspiegel Berlin]
“not everyone wants to pick a side… James Banner… revels in both the avant-garde and the swing… a musical balancing act” – Martin Böttcher [Deutschlandfunk Kultur]
“If you can throw past preferences overboard, USINE rewards you with a unique sound experience” – Christian Kautz [LikeHiFi Magazine]
“English composer James Banner brings a playful setting of three Thomas Hardy poems. These tunes are light, manic, virtuosic, and full of twists and turns” – John Paul Mayse
“intense and dramatic… gentle and beautiful… characteristic of today’s contemporary jazz with the mixture of structure and freedom, full of drama and strong soloing…” – Tony Dudley-Evans
“By dividing The Whitewashed Wall into three distinct movements, James Banner gives the singer multiple opportunities to show off elements of her virtuosity. “Why does she turn…?” offers leaping contours and a climactic high note, while “Well, once…” imposes a strict, swift tempo onto the melody. “My brush goes one with a rush…”, frenetic and clearly meant to push the singer to the very upper limit of her range, comes off as a controlled detonation” – Cleveland Classical
Freedom is still here but writhing and storming out of its straitjacket…. highly shaped precision soundscapes unfolding continuously, creating a vibrant haven for contrasting digressions. Extreme solos are deftly framed by intricate themes… loaded with evolving detail, finer points gleaming” Downbeat (Martin Longley)
“…evokes a wealth of familiar and beloved things, while living intensely with its own unique force. The intricately constructed structures… form the bed with the unsettling veins of a fluid that can only overflow: the particularly felicitous combination of masterful engineering and a burning, vital expressiveness” Citizen Jazz (Aymeric Morillon)
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