NarrSteidle is the German duo of Leipzig-based guitarist and electronics player Steffi Narr and Berlin-based drummer Oli Steidle (of The Killing Popes, Ilog, Oliwood, Der Rote Bereich, and Klima Kalima) that describes itself as «the antithesis of kitch- free improvisation at its most dynamic and incisive». Ghost Ants is the debut full-length album of the duo, following the EP Introduction (released by Steidle, 2023). The album was recorded at Off the Road Studios in Leipzig in September 2024.

Ghost Ants features eleven (plus a hidden bonus track) powerful, nervous, dense, stubborn, and fast-shifting free improvised conversations – or electronics-laden collisions, that keep shaping and discarding their sonic perspectives. Narr’s effects-laden, punkish guitar and Steidle’s enhanced drums, augmented by sampler and MIDI controller, become otherworldly sound generators, always on the verge of collapsing into complete, noisy chaos. Often, the tension-charged dynamics and the nervous detours sound as if aiming at continuous sensory overload, or as NarrSteidle thinks of this kind of dynamics: «the pieces catch the ear and whisper unrelated stories through a tin-can telephone».

But there are also brief moments of strange, elusive calm, tons of adventurous sonic inventions, and sheer fun that lead to some hallucinogenic synaesthetic spaces. Eventually, Ghost Ants reflects our times, flooded by an intense, disturbing flow of information, and in its modest, passionate manner, suggests how to enjoy, bite, nestle, and even dance some busy waltz with this endless flow of sounds.

Eyal Hareuveni

Steffi Narr (guitar, electronics, drumcomputer), Oli Steidle (drums, sampler, midi-controller)