Fabian Neubauer
musician | multi-instrumentalist improviser
[acoustic + electronic sound]
Fabian Neubauer works with sound.
He works through action and response — letting situations, systems, and accidents generate material.
Sound emerges through interaction, space, and situation.
photo by Youngjun Kim
photo by Martin Müller
Fabian Neubauer (*1994) is a musician, multi-instrumentalist, and improviser active internationally at the intersection of experimental and improvised music, Free Jazz, Noise, electroacoustic music, performance art, and interdisciplinary practices.
Having studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, he focuses on multi-instrumental improvisation. Operating between acoustic and electronic sound, he explores a wide range of instruments and sound sources—including piano, drums, guitar, percussion, field recordings, samples, and electronic feedback systems. His work spans both free improvisation and conceptual approaches, treating music as an open, ever-evolving process.
Central to his practice is an approach shaped less by control than by intuition, physical play, and openness; by consciously embracing not knowing, he subverts routines and automatisms.
He has collaborated with numerous international artists, including Elliott Sharp, John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel, Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Korhan Erel, Kevin Shea, Matt Mottel, Leila Bordreuil, Hans Tammen, Sun Yhizou, Matthias Kaiser, Shuoxin Tan, Mats Gustafsson, Jun-Y Ciao, Le Quan Ninh, Ryan Carniaux, Felix Nussbaumer, Bastian Buddenbrock, Masayo Koketsu, Ryotaro Miyasaka, Phil Niblock, Mik Quantius, Gunda Gottschalk, Israel Flores Bravo, Sebastian Gramss, Jan Klare and many others.
Concert tours have taken him to various countries across Europe and Asia.
Fabian Neubauer has performed both solo and in numerous ensembles, and has collaborated with artists from dance and visual arts. He has worked closely with New York avant-garde musicians and Moers Festival artists-in-residence Kevin Shea and Matt Mottel, recognized figures in the city’s underground scene. He has been invited to many renowned international festivals, including Moers Festival and Fusion Festival. He is a recipient of the Istanbul Residency Award of the Kunststiftung NRW and winner of the Steinway Prize NRW. With the Düsseldorf Düsterboys, he received the German Record Critics’ Award for Nenn Mich Musik.
Fabian Neubauer created music for dance and theater companies such as SZENE2WEI, POUR Ensemble, Folkwang Tanzstudio, Chikako Kaido’s IMA KOKO WATASHI, and Karada/Kriegskörper. Together with Luong/Neubauer/Liebhaber and filmmaker Franco Consales, he brought the audiovisual performance ALCHEMY to international stages. Beyond live performances, Neubauer’s discography spans numerous albums on various labels, and he remains active across a broad spectrum of projects. In the duo [e:ga‘l] with Bastian Buddenbrock, Neubauer explores the intersections of noise, conceptual work, and performance art; together, they curate Solips, a platform for interdisciplinary art based in Wuppertal. He is also the curator of the “Off-Grid” series at ORT in Wuppertal.
Other ensembles he has worked with include KNYNS, Nasssau, Glossa, The Dorf, the Wuppertal Improvisation Orchestra, the London Improvisers Orchestra, and GLIS GLIS. He is also the organist of the psychedelic folk band The Düsseldorf Düsterboys.
His artistic practice is characterized by an open approach to sound, instrumentation, and form. He questions traditional notions of the finished artwork and understands music as a dynamic, process-based phenomenon. Rather than reproducing fixed aesthetic or stylistic templates, he embraces ambiguity: loud can appear quiet, irony can feel sincere, complexity can become sensual. Elements of chance, intuitive structures, and a sensitive handling of sonic and performative parameters play a central role in his work. His musical vocabulary includes electronic feedback, no-input techniques, and objects and materials alongside classical instrumentation.
He rejects artistic conformity as well as calculated provocation, viewing his work not as a finished product but as a continuous experiment. His practice resists rigid categorization, moving freely between improvised music, contemporary composition, noise, and electroacoustic sound art. His work reflects a critical engagement with musical conventions and broader social and aesthetic questions. At the same time, playful curiosity, humor, and a deliberate naivety shape his artistic process. He pursues an identity defined not by boundaries, but by openness.
discography
Performances (Selection)
Improvised / Experimental
– With John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel, Patrick Hengst – Ort, Wuppertal (2025)
– PLEASURE Action Trio – Moers Festival (2023)
– With KNYNS – Free Essen Festival, Essen (2022)
– With Talibam!, Peter Rubel – Makroscope, Mülheim (2021)
Conceptual / Performative / Installative
– With RTKPO Blob Collective – Moers Festival (2025)
– [e:ga’l] – Japan/Taiwan Tour (2025)
– ALCHEMY Tour – Hundred Years Gallery (London), Artdog Gallery (Hastings) (2023)
– Nasssau/Glossa – Kölner Philharmonie (2023)
– International Silent Film Festival Bonn – Duo w/ Gunda Gottschalk (2025)
Dance / Theatre / Interdisciplinary /
– “Karada-Kriegskörper” (dance piece by Chikako Kaido) – ES365 Concrete Zone, Düsseldorf
(2024)
– Ima Koko Watashi – Tour in Palermo, Enna, Catania (2024)
– "Orpheus & Eurydike" Pour Ensenble – (2025, 2026)
– The Place from Which – Dance piece by Jennie Boultbee – Maschinenhaus Essen (2026)
Large Ensembles
– With the London Improvisers Orchestra – St Mary’s Church, London (2025)
– “Oumwe” by Eslon Hindundu – Moers Festival (2024)
– With The Dorf, Phil Niblock – Cuba Black Box, Münster (2019)
– Elliott Sharp – ReGenerate – JOE Festival, Essen (2025)
Folk/Rock
– The Düsseldorf Düsterboy – Fuzzstock Festival (2025)
– The Düsseldorf Düsterboys – Kölner Philharmonie (2025)
– The Düsseldorf Düsterboys – Fusion Festival (2023)