Tom Djll studied electronic music with Stephen Scott at the Colorado College, working with the EMS Synthi 100. In 1978–79 Djll studied at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, with Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis, Karl Berger and others. He spent the years 1981-1993 working with the Serge Modular Music System (published work MUTOOTATOR, 1992); Deep Listening work with Pauline Oliveros, 1991. At the Mills College Contemporary Music Center Djll 1993-95, developed a personal trumpet language alongside electronic and microtonal studies. Further developments with his Bay Area band GROSSE ABFAHRT were undertaken from 1999 – 2016, released on the Emanem, Creative Sources, and Setola di Maiale labels. Beginning in 2012, Djll gradually re-introduced electronics into his sound-set, concentrating on analog systems and electroacoustic interfaces. Currently Djll concentrates on presenting and explaining chaotic sound-worlds, inspired by the work of the late master instrument designer Rob Hordijk. Recent collaborations with Gino Robair, Rova Saxophone Quartet, William Winant, Fred Frith and EUPHOTIC with Cheryl Leonard and Bryan Day.

"“Tom Djll has taken the trumpet as far beyond its silver, snarling vernacular as it is possible to go, and as far from the extended technique proponents as Bill Dixon is from Roy Castle. Djll’s trumpet extensions are in some respects no different to what early jazzmen used as punctuation devices or timbral effects. Few have gone as far as Djll, though, in making such articulations the entire substance of a piece, and none have gone so far in the development of split-channel playing." - The Wire

"...the music is intensely quiet, with instrumental sounds approaching room ambience. Dropping into sustained quietness like this requires great trust between the collaborating improvisers, with the opportunity to take the lead — and the danger of ruining the music — never closer. It is one of the highest states of improvised music." - East Bay Express (writing about Grosse Abfahrt's VANITY)