James Banner was born in Dudley, England and is now based in Berlin and the UK, working as an improvising musician and composer. Current projects include workshopping and recording unperformed solo pieces for double bass, researching and developing a digital publication on improvisational solo studies, a limited edition recycled tape and digital solo release, as well as TEXTS, commissioning 6 international authors to create new works for the duo of Stephanie Lamprea + James Banner plus guests from Berlin + NYC including Anna Webber, Liz Kosack, Nick Dunston and Michaël Attias. Ensemble projects as a leader include James Banner’s USINE, featured in portraits and broadcasts by Deutschlandfunk Kultur and RBB Kultur, and co-curating the monthly improvised music residency Practically Married with pianist Declan Forde at Berlin’s Donau115.
As a performer and collaborator he has worked on projects with artists and organisations such as Podium Esslingen/Quadrature (#bebeethoven), Max Andrzejewski: HÜTTE, Berliner Ensemble (Nibelungen) + Maxim Gorki Theatre (Salome), Leipziger Jazztage (Fish and Chips with Anna-Lena Schnabel, Floria Weber, James Maddren), Musikcentrum Öst Stockholm (Jazz Alloy with Lina Nyberg, Laura Jurd, Daniel Karlsson), Making Music/Sound and Music/PRSF/BBC (Adopt A Composer), Centrala Birmingham (Art and Brexit Talk), Vanguard Manchester/The Arc Project (composition collaborations), Rachel Sermanni (So It Turns), Vilde&Inga (Berlin Tour w/John Hollenbeck, Toby Delius, Declan Forde), Stephanie Lamprea (Tiny-works) and Cansu Tanrıkulu (duo and RBB broadcast). He also performs with Birgitta Flick (Quartet/Septet), Jörg Hochapfel (Bruchgold und Koralle) and Tilo Weber (Four Fauns). Solo performances and collaborations include: Paula Doepfner: for the trees to drop, James Turrell’s light-installation at Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof, The things my parents said about childhood at Ideas of Noise Festival 2020, and livestreams with Around The Houses Festival, 5pm Series and Deep Tones For Peace. In 2021 he is also a guest with Tempus Konnex Ensemble (Leipzig/Halle) and will perform in Dresden and Berlin as part of Outernational’s Songs of Wounding with Mariana Sadovska and Max Andrzejewski.
