Shannon Barnett is an Australian trombonist and composer, currently based in Cologne, Germany.
After establishing herself in the Australian scene she relocated to New York City, where she completed a Master of Music at SUNY Purchase and performed with artists like the Birdland Big Band, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and Jon Faddis.

In early 2014, she moved to Cologne, Germany, to take up a position with the WDR Big Band, which gave her the opportunity to perform with guests including Vince Mendoza, Ron Carter, Joshua Redman, Maria Schneider and Paquito D'Rivera. She has also become very active in the local scene. Her quartet, featuring Stefan Karl Schmid, David Helm and Fabian Arends has released three albums: ‘Hype’ (2016), ‘Bad Lover’ (2022) and ‘Alive at Loft’ (2023).

In addition to her work as a trombonist she has composed and presented the work 'Dead Weight' for musicians and fitness studio, and released the album Wolves and Mirrors, for voice, trombone, trumpet, cello and drums. In 2025, as a Monheim Triennale artist, she presented the work ‘How Much is the Moon?’ together with the EOS Chamber Orchestra.
In 2020 she received the WDR Jazz Prize for Improvisation and in 2022 she received the German Jazz Prize in the brass instrument category. Since April 2019 she has been Professor for Jazz Trombone at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany.  

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Stefan Karl Schmid is "without question one of the most intereting saxophonists of the young German jazz scene" (jazzandrock.com). With "a sound language full of nuances" (Kölner Stadtanzeiger) and an always "alert intellect" (DLF), the half-Icelandic, half-German has already "found his own personal style" (Mannheimer Morgen). He implements this style with great detail and virtuosity in diverse projects and ensembles, both as a saxophonist/ clarinettist and as a composer.

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Schmid spreads his artistic work over various formations, which he leads partly alone, partly together with his band colleagues. From the intimate duo with pianist Lars Duppler, to trio and quartet formations (MUSE & Schmid's Huhn), to large ensembles such as his octet Pyjama or the Subway Jazz Orchestra, he impresses both playfully and compositionally with a "masterful sound language full of nuances that can be savoured with all the senses" (H.P. Koll).

On ten releases under his own name and more than 40 recordings as a sideman so far, it becomes clear with what creative intensity Stefan Karl Schmid gives expression to his artistic voice. 

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Schmid studied in Nuremberg, Cologne and New York. He was a member of the German Youth National Jazz Orchestra, curates concert series and teaches as a Professor for Jazz Saxophone and Ensemble at the University of Arts in Mannheim.

 

Cologne-based multi-instrumentalist David Helm and singer-songwriter Marek Johnson began his musical career with the Limburg Cathedral Boys‘ Choir. In contrast, during this time he devoted himself to the sound of noisy bands at muddy small-town punk rock festivals. In 2015, he completed his double bass studies at the HfMT Cologne.

As a highly acclaimed double bassist and improviser, he received the Cologne Jazz Prize in 2019. David can be heard on over 80 recordings and performs worldwide with numerous bands in a wide variety of musical contexts such as the German/Danish collective Fosterchild, the Shannon Barnett Quartet, Pollon and Own Your Bones. He currently performs as a harpsichordist and pianist in Emily Wittbrodt’s song cycle ‘Wearing Words’.

 

His own projects include a free improvisating duo with Parisian pianist Jozef Dumoulin, in which David Helm devotes himself to sound art with voice, guitar, objects and electronics. The debut album ‘No-Eyed Deer’ was released in 2022 on the Berlin label Anunaki Tabla. 

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In the summer of 2025, he released the debut album ‘First Crash’ by the electro-noise band Placebo Domingo together with Philip Zoubek and Dominik Mahnig. 

At the end of the year, the third Marek Johnson album ‘Limbs’ will be released on Papercup Records.

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Fabian Arends was born in in a small town called Friesoythe, Niedersachsen/Germany in 1990. Since 2010 he is living in Cologne, where he studied Jazz-Drums at the HfMT Cologne and graduated in 2014. Since then he is working as a drummer, composer, producer of electronic music and teacher for drums, ensemble and improvisation at HMDK Stuttgart.

His main focus of interest is the creation of a creative working environment for himself based on sustainable musical relationships as the foundation of his musical research and output.
This takes form in bands that he initiated, such as Fosterchild or Fractures and other groups that work extensively as musical collectives - e.g. Shannon Barnett Quartet, Fabian Dudek Quartet, Reza Askari Roar, Philip Brämswig Trio, Thomas Rückert Trio or the Jason Seizer Quartet.
In 2016 Arends released his first record as bandleader and composer called Levitate (klaeng records), which was nomitated for Echo Jazz in the category Newcomer of the year.

The formation of the danish-german collaboration Fosterchild grew out of a concert series curated by Arends and David Helm for the Loft Cologne in 2015 called First Meetings. Since it ́s formation the band played some concert tours in Germany and Denmark including several appearances at Copenhagen Jazzfest or Cologne Jazzwek and recorded two albums called Fosterchild (Tangible music, 2019) and Dear Earthling (ILK Records 2020), both recorded at Deutschlandfunk Kammermusiksaal Cologne.

In 2022 Fabian Arends formed a new project called Fractures and released it ́s first record in march 2022 on Klaeng Records. This ensemble serves as a working laboratory for different improvisational concepts and compositions.
Arends ́ work is represented on more than 40 records. He collaborated with musicians such as Lee Konitz, Larry Goldings, Maria Schneider, Thomas Morgan, Ingrid Laubrock, Marc Copland, Bill Carrothers, Aurora Nealand, Shannon Barnett, Doug Weiss, Loren Stillman, Jacob Anderskov, Kasper Tranberg, Sebastian Gille, Hayden Chisholm, Nils Wogram, Wanja Slavin, Simon Nabatov, Ignaz Schick, Niels Klein, Pablo Held, David Helm, Robert Landfermann, Thomas Rückert among others.

In 2018 Fabian Arends was a scholar of the Arts Foundation Baden-Württemberg. In the past he also received several prizes with different groups - namely Musikpreis des Landes Niedersachsen (2010), Sparda Jazzprize (2012,2013,2014) and Münchener Jazzpreis (2014).
 
Since 2016 he is teaching Drums, Ensemble and Improvisation at Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart (HMDK).