ABOUT

Susanna Ridler works as a composer, vocalist, and producer at the intersection of contemporary music, electronics, jazz, improvisation, and avant-garde pop. She composes music for film, theatre, and radio drama, as well as for vocal and chamber music settings.
Her electronic and jazz-oriented works are released under the project name [koe:r].
Her contemporary compositions and literary settings are published under her own name.

DETAILS
Susanna Ridler studied acting in Vienna and music and voice in Maastricht, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. Computers and electronic sound generators were part of her musical toolkit from an early stage. "Rolling Stone magazine" reviewed the CD “Susystems” by her jazz/electronic project [koe:r] with the words: “Straight into the realm of genius!”—praising its artful blend of acoustic and digital sound aesthetics, featuring, among others, double bassist Peter Herbert and saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig.

Whether in her chamber music for Ensemble XXI. Jahrhundert or in her settings of texts by the poet Gert Jonke, realized with a computer-generated “Pocket Orchestra,” tradition and modernity meet in Ridler’s work, merging into an individual artistic synthesis that unfolds in unusual sonic landscapes.
Despite her extensive use of electronically processed sound microcosms and artificial structures, Ridler remains committed to the immediacy of authentic emotion:
> “I always strive to illuminate the emotional core of a text, a film, or a theatre scene through my musical language. I set myself no boundaries in doing so. Every musical means—from sound and noise to a substantial yet accessible melody—is permitted to convey the content.”

As a vocalist and live performer, Ridler also integrates advanced vocal techniques, at times expanded through technical equipment. “Emotion, expression, and content are essential to me.” Her long-standing artistic engagement with the literary work of Gert Jonke “has profoundly enriched my entire creative practice—and opened up new ways of using ‘language’ as musical and vocal expressive material.”
Ridler composes music for film, theatre, and radio drama, as well as for vocal and chamber music. On her label **Electroland Records Vienna**, she has released four recordings since 2008:
[koe:r] (2008),
"Tachycardia" Remix EP (2009),
[koe:r] “Susystems” (2012),
and in 2020/21 the extensive literary setting “Geometrie der Seele – A Musical Homage to the Austrian Poet Gert Jonke,” which was nominated in 2021 for the German Record Critics’ Award.
Following a revision, this work is now being released digitally for the first time in a new three-part edition. It includes the chamber composition *“Chlorophyllklang,”* the tone poem  “Der Sprachkomponist,” and the three-movement sonata “Radio Jonke,” appearing on February 8, 2026—the day Gert Jonke would have celebrated his 80th birthday.
In 2025, as part of a commission for the Festival Retz, Ridler created a comprehensive musical setting of "Fretten", the anti-homeland novel by Helena Adler. In her search for a new sonic language, she formed the ensemble "VoCe Plus", featuring three outstanding instrumentalists: Asja Valcic (cello), Lena Fankhauser (viola), and Sophie Hassfurther (clarinet, tenor saxophone, flute).

Also in 2025, Ridler composed the film score for the documentary “sich langsam, nähern” by director Maria Arlamovsky.
“Even in my early works within the project [koe:r], I was fascinated by the technical possibilities of sound production, which I sought to integrate experimentally into my work—while composing, in live performance, and in music production,” says Ridler.

“Through years of experimentation, I developed a digital working method that allows me to process studio or live-recorded audio material in order to create the desired sonic image. The blend of acoustic and electronic sound layers is certainly a characteristic element of my music. Improvisation—that spontaneous, emotional expression, the magical emergence of freely improvised sound spaces—is another important element; it is my connection to jazz.
Another aspect is composing for traditional instruments and choir.”
Music for film, theatre, radio drama, vocal and chamber music—it unfolds like a pas de deux between word, tone, and sound; between tradition and the present—lived out between stage, studio, and cinema.