Axel Kolb (*2001) is an artist, composer, and musician. His work with sound spans various fields, including composition, performance, installation, text, and film scoring.
Kolb’s works and performances build on site-responsive approaches with a specific focus on the possible relations between mechanisms of auditory perception and fiction, architecture, signification, contextualisation, conceptualisation and acoustics. Narrative and fictional spaces are core compositional elements that manifest themselves through technical and musical translations in his practice of fixed media composition.
In his solo trombone project, he combines extended instrumental techniques such as multiphonics and split-tones with digital sound processing in order to navigate imaginary fields in the form of referential storytelling.
Since 2021, he curates and organises Spectres, a concert series for spatial approaches in music. Both in Spectres and his compositions, the interaction between sound and space is a central theme.
Kolb recently received a scholarship from the Fondation Nicati-de Luze and a commission from the Archipel Festival. During his involvement in various productions and collaborations, he has had the role of composer, sound programmer, film scorer, live sound engineer, mixing engineer, technical advisor, documentarian, advisor for electroacoustic studios, and also works as a research assistant at the ICST.
His compositions have been performed amongst others at the ZKM Karlsruhe, Cabaret Voltaire Zürich, Les Urbaines Festival, Sonic Matter Festival, Festival Archipel, on the GRM Acousmonium, at Rotterdam Art Week, as well as at various other festivals, DIY venues, and concert halls.