Even before her academy studies of solo cello, Johanna Varner (born in Gr�felfing, near Munich) had been interested in contemporary composition and improvisation, and was a member of the Studio f�r Neue Musik, under Dieter Schnebel's direction, from the age of 14. Johanna has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra and with the ICI Ensemble, a Munich-based collective of improvisers and jazz composers that has functioned as an autonomous unit and as a chamber group at the service of such guest directors as Barry Guy, George Lewis, and Giancarlo Schiaffini. It was in the context of the ICI and its various workshops and splinter groups that I first heard the Varners. It was self-evident that the two of them were gifted musicians, and, unusually for Munich, no playing influences were immediately detectable in their work. Each had his or her own sound, and there was nothing provincial about it. A number of relationships have developed through the ICI projects. Steve Lake www.JohannaVarner.com