So Sner is the duo of Viennese bass clarinetist Susanna Gartmayer, a mainstay of the Vienna experimental scene and part of the outfits möström, The Vegetable Orchestra, Bödenauer/Gartmayer Duo and a collaborator of Christof Kurzmann as a duo and in his Orchester 33 1/3, with Düsseldorf-based electronics musician and producer Stefan Schneider, known for his solo project Mapstation and his collaborations with Bill Wells, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, or visual artist Katharina Grosse. Gartmeyer and Schneider met after Gartmeyer’s concert in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf. Schneider was so impressed by her bass clarinet polyphonies that he immediately suggested a duo project.

The So Sner began working on their debut album, «Reime» – released as a limited edition of 300 vinyls plus download option – in 2015 and began recording it at Kraftwerk’s former Kling Klang studio, now a workspace and a concert venue. The second part of the album was recorded in the summer of 2020 in Düsseldorf at the Stammhaus church, whose interior wood paneling facilitated organic acoustics.

«Reime» succeeds to integrate the experimental, sound-oriented approaches of Gartmayer and Schneider with minimalist, cosmic beats. The atmosphere of the album is chamber and psychedelic at the same time, floating gently between vintage electronica, mysterious drones and abstract dreamscapes. The otherworldly, subtle electronics of Schneider expand the sonic palette of Gartmeyer’s woody, dark and ethereal sounds of the bass clarinet, and in a similar manner, Gartmeyer colors Schneider’s atmospheric beats. Both Gartmayer and Schneider like to play with elusive and hypnotic rhythmic patterns, and together they offer a set of highly suggestive, introspective and surprisingly organic soundscapes.

Eyal Hareuveni   

Susanna Gartmayer (bcl), Stefan Schneider (elec)