Hannes Strobl.
Hearing the familiar differently.
Hannes Strobl on Innsbruck as an acoustic space, the resistance of recorded sound and the independent life of Resonance IBK in stereo.
In conversation with Hannes Strobl
From high above Innsbruck, the city remains audible even when the view is filled with mountains. Hannes Strobl listens to that tension between distance and presence. For Resonance IBK, he recorded across the Inn valley and brought those sounds into dialogue with electric bass, electric double bass and electronics. We spoke by email about listening positions, the role of Christof Dienz’s trombone interludes and why an album needs a space of its own.
Strobl grew up in Innsbruck and is based in Berlin. His work combines instrumental playing, field recordings and live electronics. Resonance IBK began as a spatial composition commissioned for Klangspuren Schwaz in 2025; the album was released by Room40 on 25 September 2026. These answers look at the passage from the former factory hall in St. Bartlmä to the stereo image.
The city reaches into the mountains.
You grew up in Innsbruck and now live in Berlin. When you walked through Innsbruck again for Resonance IBK, which sound felt immediately familiar, and what did you suddenly hear differently? Was there a place where this was particularly clear?
What has always fascinated me about Innsbruck is how far the sounds of the city travel up into the mountains. Up there, you are visually surrounded by nature, yet at the same time you hear what is happening down in the valley and in the city. The topography and our listening position determine what we hear and how we perceive it. That is precisely what I find musically interesting.
Two sides, one acoustic space.
For this work, you recorded simultaneously on both sides of the Inn valley. What did those two perspectives make audible that a single recording would not have revealed? Did anything surprise you when you listened to them together?
I was interested in how sound spreads across the Inn valley and the role topography plays in this. The synchronised recordings from both sides of the valley (Part 4) create a spatial sound image that I can work with compositionally. I explore how the recordings relate to each other, which sounds overlap and which spatial relationships become audible as a result. For example, a sound may initially be perceptible on one side of the valley and later emerge on the other as well.
This resistance is productive for me precisely because it makes me leave familiar musical paths and find new sonic solutions.
A dialogue with recordings.
You describe the city recordings as a starting point for music rather than simply documentation. Could you take one sound and explain how it became an idea for your electric bass or electric double bass? What did you try with your hands on the instrument?
I examine the field recordings for their musical qualities: rhythms, pitches, timbres and resonances. Over many years, I have developed a musical language of my own on the instrument that allows me to enter into a dialogue with the field recordings. I use bass and electronics to place the recordings in new sonic relationships. I am interested in how this shifts our perception of the original sounds and makes us suddenly hear familiar things differently.
New listening perspectives.
Christof Dienz composed the interludes for four trombones. How did you work out together what role these voices should play between the larger sections? Was there an idea from him or the musicians that made you hear your own work differently?
Christof and I have known each other for a long time. His interludes for four trombones introduce a distinct sonic accent within the composition. They create transitions between the larger sections and change our perspective on what we have heard so far. I am interested in how the different sound materials relate to one another and how new listening perspectives emerge from this.
A space of its own in stereo.
In St. Bartlmä, the former factory hall was itself part of the composition. Now Resonance IBK can be heard as an album without being there. Which decisions mattered most to you for this version? What do you want to convey of the spatial experience, and what can emerge afresh when listening at home?
For the album, I developed new material, including work with David Moss (voice) and Elena Kakaliagou (horn). This was also about creating an independent version that works in stereo. The spatial situation of the factory hall cannot simply be transferred. Instead, I rearranged the sounds within the stereo image and placed them in relation to one another: through their position, their proximity and distance, and the way they overlap.
For me, Resonance IBK is an exploration of Innsbruck as an acoustic space and of the musical possibilities of its sounds.
Over many years, I have developed a musical language of my own on electric bass and electric double bass that allows me to enter into a dialogue with the field recordings. The recorded material is not always easy to combine with instrumental sounds. A kind of resistance emerges that cannot simply be resolved. This resistance is productive for me precisely because it makes me leave familiar musical paths and find new sonic solutions.
Together with the electronics and the contributions of the other musicians, this gives rise to an independent compositional form. Christof Dienz’s trombones open up another sonic perspective on the material. The album is not simply documentation of the original composition for the factory hall, but an independent version with its own spatial and sonic dramaturgy.
Hannes Strobl
Interview by email · Editorial and image art direction: SCENE:ID. Courtesy of Hannes Strobl