Sam Prekop (The Sea And Cake) a n d John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea en Cake) have analog u e synths zoom from early house via Göttching’s E2-E4 to new horizons in a d o ubl e- bil l with So Sner, a duo consisting of Stefan Schneider (Mapstation, To Rococo Rot) and Susanna Gartmayer that deliciously blends ele c tronica and bass clarinet , rooted in the early eighties and reaching into the future .

SAM PREKOP & JOHN MCENTIRE

After working together in the genre-transcending rock band The Sea and Cake for around three decades , Sam Prekop and Tortoise drummer John McEntire finally joined forces as a duo in 2019. After all, integrating ele c troni c music into new context s was something they’d both wanted to do for a quite while . Their debut album ‘Sons Of’ w as released by Thrill Jockey in the summer of 2022. The various synth modules, samplers, trigger pads and effects employed by the duo serve as tools in creating unique textures and tapping into new worlds of sound .

Prekop and McEntire understand how to put together a pop song better than anyone and, as a duo, they make use of that knowledge . That’s how they manage to create very dynamic pieces with ever shifting tonalities and magnetising grooves that have us zooming from early house, via Manuel Göttchings E2-E4 to new horizons .

SO SNER: STEFAN SCHNEIDER - SUSANNA GARTMAYER

Stefan Schneider (ele c tronic s ) and Susanna Gartmayer (ba s s clarinet ) met in 2015 at the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf, w here Schneider was so impressed by Gartmayer’s poly phonic work on her instrument that he soon suggested a collaboration . That same year they recorded the first part of their debut album ‘Reime’ (2022, TAL records) at Kraftwerk’s former Kling Klang studio. The second part was recorded in the summer of 2020 at the Stammhaus church in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth, w here the wooden panelling provided organic acoustics .

So Sner’ s sound is as focused on experiment ation as it is rooted in tradition , resulting in a wide range of moods and texture s , from playful melodic phrases and steamy grooves to puls ating industri al madness 

Photocredits: Markus Luigs & Schiko