[3] The group consists of 12 musicians, with an instrumentation that includes panpipes, saxophones, electric violin and cello, guitars, percussion, drums, accordion and keyboards as well as a sound engineer and production manager.

[13] Icebreaker's first album Terminal Velocity (music by Andriessen, Gordon, Lang, Gavin Bryars and Damian LeGassick), also originally on Argo,[14][15][16] has also been produced in a remastered version for Cantaloupe.

[14] Other albums include Rogue's Gallery (NewTone), with works by Andriessen, Lang, Godfrey, Michael Torke and Steve Martland; a portrait of Diderik Wagenaar (Composers' Voice)[17] and Extraction (between the lines), containing music by LeGassick and Gordon McPherson plus a remix by Mel.

Contributions to compilation albums include works by Graham Fitkin (Argo), Steve Martland and John Godfrey (Century XXI A – M / NewTone).

It was re-released on the Firebrand label on 18 July 2019, to coincide with Icebreaker's performance of the work at Matera European City of Culture, where Roger Eno made a guest appearance on piano.

[19] AtaXia, a collaboration with Wayne McGregor's company Random Dance, based on Trance, premiered in Sadler's Wells, London in June 2004 with further performances in Amsterdam and New York.

[20] The 2003/4 season saw a major multimedia collaboration with the renowned Dutch ensemble Orkest de Volharding, and singer Cristina Zavalloni, entitled Big Noise.

[24] Since 2006 Icebreaker have had a monthly show on Brighton-based totallyradio.com, including interviews with composers and playing a wide range of music in mixed and contrasting genres.

In 2009 Icebreaker played further performances of Cheating, Lying, Stealing with Scottish Ballet, and appeared at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in two concerts celebrating Louis Andriessen's 70th birthday.

[27] Icebreaker are working with the Science Museum on a further collaborative project, with contributions from Bryars, Shiva Feshareki and Sarah Angliss with performances planned for Bradford and London in March 2025.

2014/15 also featured the Recycled Project, including new works by Ed Bennett, Roy Carroll, Paul Whitty, Craig Vear, Linda Buckley and a new arrangement of a piece by Julia Wolfe.

The piece, entitled Magenta Magnetic, was premiered at the Baltic Gaida Festival in Vilnius in October 2019,[38] but further performances were postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

[48] Trance was also well-received, particularly in its remastered version: the BBC Music Magazine referred to its "furious precision",[49] whilst Gramophone described parts of it as "genuinely mesmeric".

[53] T J Medrek, in the Boston Herald, wrote about Cranial Pavement and the re-released Terminal Velocity that "Icebreaker's music is not only marvelous ear candy but also work of real structure and substance, as demonstrated in two superb new discs".

For Allan Kozinn in The New York Times, the group was "unabashedly virtuosic";[57] Kyle Gann in The Village Voice described them as "rhythmically engrossing";[58] Alan Rich in Los Angeles Weekly as "amazing ... high-powered";[59] and Tristram Lozaw in the Boston Herald as "a harmolodic carnival of battling textures, symphonic discombobulations, and noisy innovations, all delivered with the visceral force of the best rock'n'roll".