On the 2021 album “Elephants marching on”, drummer and composer Jonas Sorgenfrei pours what moves him - such as the tug-of-war between desire and reality in a world that appears completely peaceful and intact in one place and yet can be completely out of joint just a short distance away - into music that carries precisely this contrast. On his debut album as a bandleader, the drummer, who was born in 1993 and currently lives in Nuremberg, proves himself to be a composer who works on a harmonic level with a magical, impressionistic sonority and on his instrument as a weaver of textures.

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In his second release in 2022, he dedicated himself to the transparent sound of a trio without a harmony instrument: the saxophone trio. The compositions of the program “Moods” tell of moods in everyday life and beyond - influenced by their emotions and qualities.

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In his last two releases as a bandleader, from 2023 and 2025 respectively, Jonas Sorgenfrei presents, in each case through captivating live recordings, the two programs of his most recent albums Elephants Marching On and Moods in a new guise — on the one hand with a quartet and on the other with a quintet, in cooperation with Deutschlandfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk. “Live” and “Quintet Live” feature compositions by Sorgenfrei, in which the band delves deeply into the pieces and their at times melancholic atmosphere, revealing in their interpretations a fireworks display of virtuosity and breathtaking interplay.

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In January 2026, his new program “Cracks In The Silence” will be released — his fifth album as a bandleader and at the same time his most versatile work to date. For the first time, his music will also be available on vinyl: the A and B sides form two sonically distinct worlds — a kaleidoscope of sounds, ensembles, and moods that together paint a very personal panorama of his past years.

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Together with his great band, he brings his subject into a highly musical, extremely flexible balance. It is shaped by strong playing personalities, each with their own unmistakable tone. Saxophonist Florian Trübsbach brings an inner jubilation to the music with his luminous vocal tone, pianist Rainer Böhm and guitarist Philipp Brämswig fan out a harmony that shimmers in many colors in their closely interwoven playing and bassist Matthias Akeo Nowak provides the foundation that connects them all. And even when Jonas Sorgenfrei has majestic pachyderms marching through the title track of his debut CD, it sounds as if they are floating through space and dreaming of time. 

– Beate Sampson​