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LP
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TAL 034LP
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The Well is the second album by the duo So Sner, composed of Susanna Gartmayer (bass clarinet) and Stefan Schneider (electronics). Recorded over nearly two years in various studios and spaces, the album reflects So Sner's extensive touring across Europe. The final mixing took place in Vienna at the studio of Martin Siewert, who served as both co-producer and mastering engineer. Known for his meticulous attention to sonic detail, Siewert brings his unique techniques and distinctive sound enhancements to the album, resulting in a work that is both stylistically cohesive and daringly uncompromising. With The Well, the duo explores both fluid and dissonant sonic landscapes, embracing different structural and sonic challenges. The result is a quieter, more introspective set of compositions than many might have anticipated. The album is a statement of two confident collaborators crafting com-plex, spatial musical moments in their own distinct manner. The music on The Well generates a multiplicity of effects that transcend conventional oppositions such as hand-played versus programmed, composition versus improvisation, or analog versus digital. The album suggests a re-articulation of these categories, allowing the ten tracks to gradually blend one musical idea into another, and one musician into another, in a circular and complementary fashion. The polymetric permutations and exploratory reed components create a soundscape where all elements coexist harmoniously, without compromising or diminishing each other's presence. With its sparse sound architecture, The Well invites listeners into a space of effective emptiness, offering room for the mind and body to explore -- a sonic island where one can develop sensuality through patient movement. The Well captures the genuine act of exploring new territories, serving as a storage place for the time and space shared by the duo, re-filtering their experiences of performing and traveling together. The Well is a lucidly playful and ambitious album by two contemporary musicians who are continually learning to create and respond to the subtle and significant changes in their music, maintaining momentum throughout the entire work. In addition to her work with So Sner, Susanna Gartmayer has recently collaborated with artists such as Joe McPhee and Maria Portugal, and remains a member of her long-running band, the Vegetable Orchestra. Stefan Schneider, founder of the label TAL, has recently performed with Garth Erasmus from Cape Town and fine art luminary Katharina Grosse.
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CD
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TAL 025CD
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"How can one explain the lasting popularity of the bass clarinet in musical circles from Vienna to Brussels? Perhaps because its frequency range articulates an alternative to conventions of popular music, where 'bass' is reserved primarily for rhythmic impulses and the very foundation of the music. Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer's playing can by no means be reduced to just this, rather, it scrutinizes the entire sound universe: she can do rhythm and drone, not to mention melody and noise, often all at once. Who would be a more fitting collaborator than Stefan Schneider, with his minimalist rhythms and subtle cosmic exploration? Together, Schneider and Gartmayer form the project So Sner, which owes its existence to a concert in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf. Gartmayer's bass clarinet polyphonies so impressed Schneider that he quickly suggested a collaboration. That same year, they began recording the album Reime in Kraftwerk's former Kling Klang studio, which in 2015 became workspace and concert venue simply called Elektro Müller. The second part was recorded in the summer of 2020 in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth at Stammhaus church, whose interior wood paneling facilitated organic acoustics. Susanna Gartmayer has been active as a musician and composer in various realms between experimental rock music, improvisation and multimedia sound performance since the early 2000s, releasing the album Smaller Sad with Christof Kurzmann and Black Burst Sound Generator with Brigitta Bödenauer in 2020. In addition to his solo project Mapstation, Düsseldorf-based musician and producer Stefan Schneider has been pursuing new avenues of experimental music in the here and now for over 20 years, in numerous collaborations with Sofia Jernberg, krautrock pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, or visual artist Katharina Grosse among others. So Sner's sound is equally oriented towards experiment and tradition, whose roots can be traced back to the UK of the early '80s: an era in which soul and synth, jazz and industrial, avant-garde, and polyrhythm were blended with the help of intellectualism and punk attitude in such a way that manifold sketches of possible music emerged which are only being colorized today. Like So Sner -- from the very first stomp to the very last drop." --Olaf Karnik, Cologne, October 2021.
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LP
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TAL 025LP
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LP version. Includes printed inner sleeve and download code; edition of 300. "How can one explain the lasting popularity of the bass clarinet in musical circles from Vienna to Brussels? Perhaps because its frequency range articulates an alternative to conventions of popular music, where 'bass' is reserved primarily for rhythmic impulses and the very foundation of the music. Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer's playing can by no means be reduced to just this, rather, it scrutinizes the entire sound universe: she can do rhythm and drone, not to mention melody and noise, often all at once. Who would be a more fitting collaborator than Stefan Schneider, with his minimalist rhythms and subtle cosmic exploration? Together, Schneider and Gartmayer form the project So Sner, which owes its existence to a concert in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf. Gartmayer's bass clarinet polyphonies so impressed Schneider that he quickly suggested a collaboration. That same year, they began recording the album Reime in Kraftwerk's former Kling Klang studio, which in 2015 became workspace and concert venue simply called Elektro Müller. The second part was recorded in the summer of 2020 in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth at Stammhaus church, whose interior wood paneling facilitated organic acoustics. Susanna Gartmayer has been active as a musician and composer in various realms between experimental rock music, improvisation and multimedia sound performance since the early 2000s, releasing the album Smaller Sad with Christof Kurzmann and Black Burst Sound Generator with Brigitta Bödenauer in 2020. In addition to his solo project Mapstation, Düsseldorf-based musician and producer Stefan Schneider has been pursuing new avenues of experimental music in the here and now for over 20 years, in numerous collaborations with Sofia Jernberg, krautrock pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, or visual artist Katharina Grosse among others. So Sner's sound is equally oriented towards experiment and tradition, whose roots can be traced back to the UK of the early '80s: an era in which soul and synth, jazz and industrial, avant-garde, and polyrhythm were blended with the help of intellectualism and punk attitude in such a way that manifold sketches of possible music emerged which are only being colorized today. Like So Sner -- from the very first stomp to the very last drop." --Olaf Karnik, Cologne, October 2021.
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