[koe:r]
Susanna Ridler’s project [koe:r] exists at the intersection of jazz, electronics, avant-garde pop, and improvisation.
“Greatest Little Hits I” is both a retrospective of Susanna Ridler’s 2008 debut album [koe:r] and an expansion of it. The album collects all the original compositions from that recording and adds two previously unreleased tracks, rediscovered in the archive from the same production period: “Aria Electrica” and “Time Goes By”, reworked and fully produced 18 years later, and released in advance as singles.
“Aria Electrica,” created in 2007 with soprano Monika Bruck, combines operatic lines with electronically altered staccato voices and beats — a fascinating interplay between two worlds that today, in the age of AI-generated music, feels almost visionary.
“Time Goes By,” unfinished at the time, reflects the subjective perception of how quickly those 18 years have passed.
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The album [koe:r] was a contemporary exploration of electronics, pop, and jazz, shaped by a melancholic, downbeat aesthetic in the spirit of trip hop. Sampling, sonic manipulation, and digital studio techniques were combined with Ridler’s distinctive voice, which served both as a sonic and song-carrying element. Even interpretations of classics such as “Corcovado,” “Fever,” and “Summertime” were elevated to an unexpectedly new level. The recording received broad media attention and was praised for its detailed electronica soundscapes and its distinctive fusion of emotion and conceptual depth.
[koe:r] emerged from Ridler’s search for an individual style between tradition and modernity. The sound was strongly shaped by contributions from renowned figures of the Austrian jazz scene, including double bassist Peter Herbert, saxophonist Wolfgang Puschnig, trumpeter Thomas Gansch, guitarist Helmut Jasbar, and drummer Rainer Deixler.
With “Greatest Little Hits I,” [koe:r] is newly presented as a timeless document of consistent artistic development.
On March 20, 2026, the album “Greatest Little Hits II” will follow, compiling the original compositions from the second [koe:r] album “Susystems” (2012).
In April, “Covers” will be released, bringing together all [koe:r] cover versions.
Additionally, the reissue of the 2009 remix EP is planned, featuring remix contributions by I-WOLF (Sofa Surfers), LOWA (featuring Uwe Walkner), BRENDA (Honolulu), DIX (Heinz), and RIDLER.
[koe:r] - 2008 Reviews
Die Presse (A):
Her mostly computer generated „slow motion aesthetic” exude that bewitching soulfulness
we know from Sidsel Endresen and David Sylvian.
Der Standard (A):
On [koe:r], Ridler’s voice functions as a multi-layered, coherence-creating guideline through Dub-alike, detailed, all-out composed electronica soundscapes:
At times, just an acoustic color that is integrated in the contrast-rich structures, then emerging as a song leading character, where songs such as Jobim’s Corocvado or Gershwin’s Summertime are sensually deconstructed.
3 Sat Kulturzeit (D):
Susanna Ridler sounds out the possibilities of modern studio techniques, creating multilayered and abstract sound worlds. But in the center of the unique sound body clearly rings a jazz heart.
Kulturnews (D):
Gershwin’s Summertime exists in over 10 000 interpretations but Susanna Ridler’s version stands the proof: the “downbeat dress” she provided the song convinces with callous charm.
Vogue (D): Jazzy, intellectual, sensual
Now-on (A):
A refreshing, nimble, autonomous disc which makes one think of seaside and holiday without borrowing the „Café del Mar” cliché.
Musicchannel (A):
An access to music that is at the same time unusual and phenomenal how one wouldn’t expect it from this country. [koe:r] ripples like a waterfall. And this waterfall ripples incredibly delightful – and beautiful.
Sound & Media (A):
“… a touch of Laurie Anderson, translated into the present day. Cool, contemporary intellectual sound."
[koe:r] Susystems, 2012 Reviews
Der Standard:
“Listening to recompositions of renown Standards such as “You Go To My Head”, in which the singer, accompanied by Wolfgang Puschnig’s frenetic alto saxophone, plays out the lyrics by singing the tune’s finale in the highest head register, we hear a singer not afraid of extremes. Susystems has found her own category within the singer/songwriter modus operandi.”
Kurier:
“… The result is music for grown-ups with an international flair, somewhere between Jazz, Electronic Music, Pop and Funk, offering us a listening experience made of extreme opposites: thrilling and relaxing, touching and eccentric, overall catchy but, if you listen closely, cumbersome and strangely shaped. Simply beautiful.”
Hessischer Rundfunk 2, Günter Hottman, über „You go to my Head“ (D):
About “You Go To My Head”: “I would even go so far as to put this brand-new recording on the same level with my absolute favorite version of the song. Yes, I am talking about the one recorded by Chet Baker and Paul Bley in 1985…”
Mannheimer Morgen:
With her project “Susystems”, this newly discovered Austrian artist impresses with style, understatement and an artist’s taste. Ridler’s voice possesses the ability to sound as cold as ice in one moment, and to warm us with a lover’s sensuality in the next. In her compositions, she moves effortlessly between melodic Pop, Electronic Dance Music, Rock and emotionally charged Jazz improvisations. Her band consists of musicians with more than enough expertise to follow her wherever she goes. It all sounds much, much better to me than many of those pale scandinavian singers do. Highly recommended!”
Jazzthing:
Her cover versions sound like poems set to music, willfully conceptualized and interpreted for our digital age. Ridler’s claim to absolute authorship reaches as far as the actual release of her album, which was released on her own label Electroland Records and underlines her idea of Susystems being one person’s 360-degree-model.