Bio

Jung-Jae Kim is a South Korean saxophonist, composer, and improviser based in Berlin, active in the free avant-garde, and experimental music scene. Through a transdisciplinary and exploratory approach, he pushes the boundaries of sonic aesthetics and instrumental roles, using free improvisation to investigate human perception, communication, and the expanding possibilities of sound.

Kim has performed widely across Europe and Asia, appearing at numerous festivals and concerts. He has collaborated with leading figures in European free improvisation, including Axel Dörner, Richard Scott, Matthias Bauer, Alexander Frangenheim, Kriton Beyer, Andreas Willers, Ernesto Rodrigues, Marcello S. Busato, and Stephen Flinn, among others. His latest release, Shamanism (Relative Pitch Records, NYC, 2025), has received widespread critical acclaim and was named one of JazzTimes’ Top 10 Releases of 2025 by Andrey Henkin.

Kim’s accolades include a music scholarship from the CJ Cultural Foundation (2018) and funding awards from the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation (2023) in South Korea. As a collaborating artist, composer, and performer, he contributed to the interdisciplinary project "When Poverty, Despair, and Struggle Were All That Remained, There Was a Song", which received the Excellence Award (Multidisciplinary Arts) at the 2025 Seoul Arts Awards. He has served as a performer and panelist at the Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium (2021) and completed artist residencies at Divadlo 29 (Pardubice, Czech Republic, 2023). He co-composed the experimental music score for the documentary film Silent Observers (Eliza Petkova, 2024), which was awarded Best Original Music at the 2025 Vasil Gendov Awards (Bulgarian Film Academy) and nominated for Best Music at the 2026 Preis der deutschen Filmkritik (German Film Critics Award).

Since 2023, Kim is co-organizing Nexus, a monthly Berlin series dedicated to experimental music, real-time sonic art, and intermedia performances, alongside Irish composer and sound artist Francis Heery.