Susan Stenger is a sound artist whose practice transcends boundaries. An accomplished flautist, she participated in major performances of the work of John Cage as a member of Petr Kotik’s Brooklyn-based SEM Ensemble in the late 1970s and 80s and has had a long association with composer Phill Niblock. In 1986 Stenger joined Rhys Chatham’s guitar ensemble and was a founder member (with longtime ally Robert Poss) of wall-of-guitars group Band of Susans, her role expanding from bassist to singer and songwriter over nine releases during the next decade. After moving to London in 1995 she formed experimental performance group The Brood and all-bass art band Big Bottom, toured as bassist with Siouxsie Sioux, John Cale and Nick Cave, and collaborated with an eclectic range of artists including dancer/choreographer Michael Clark, writers Iain Sinclair and Alan Moore, and scrap-metal percussionist and composer FM Einheit. 

Stenger’s layered sound installations embrace forms, patterns and systems from both the natural world and human constructs. The 96-day-long Soundtrack for an Exhibition (MAC Lyon 2006) explored song form on multiple levels of genre, time and detail. Her drone work The Structures of Everyday Life: Full Circle (Newcastle AV Festival 2012; Toronto Nuit Blanche 2012; Stockholm Music and Arts 2014) revolved around the harmonic circle of fourths, superimposing lunar waxing/waning, celestial cycles, clock time and iconic chordal structures of Western harmony. Sound Strata of Coastal Northumberland (Newcastle AV Festival 2014-15) transformed the geologic into the sonic using an 1838 cross-section geological diagram as a graphic score, layering instrumental sounds, melodic patterns and signature rhythms from Northumbrian folk music and dance. Sound Strata toured the Northumberland coast throughout 2015 and resulted in a 96-page full-colour publication with CD. 

Stenger’s music was featured in Pat Collins’ 2011 film Tim Robinson: Connemara, about the renowned writer and cartographer, and was based on a study of Irish sean nós singing, the Connemara landscape and a close reading of Robinson’s work. She has composed soundtracks for Laura Gannon’s Silver House (2015), Jesse Jones’ Tremble,Tremble (which inhabited the Irish Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale) and Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre (2018). In 2020 Stenger designed an installation with filmmaker Sophie Fiennes for the Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer retrospective. Entitled current/SEE, it was exhibited at London’s Barbican Art Gallery and V&A Dundee and has recently been acquired by Tate Modern for its permanent collection.