Fresh from leading the fight for Britain to remain in the European Union — making the case more eloquently and powerfully than many politicians — and his new exhibition at London’s Maureen Paley gallery, Wolfgang Tillmans has dropped a surprise EP of music he’s been working on. Announcing on Instagram, the photographer said “In January 2015 after a 26 year pause I started making music again.” The results of which are being released as 2016/1986, featuring two tracks he made this year and three from 1986.
The record cements Tillmans’ lifelong artistic involvement in music; he began his career as a photographer capturing the nascent European house and techno scene for i-D. The tracks recorded in 2016 featuring a kicking deep house stomper called “Make It Up As You Go Along,” made from samples recorded at a printing press, and an experimental abstract piece called “Triangle / Gong / What.”
On the B-side, though, things get grittier, with three pieces of energetic post-punk cold wave nihilism the photographer originally recorded to cassette in his hometown with Bert Lessman, and which he revisited earlier this year. Creating a new mix of his original vocals, and Bert’s synth, as well as new instruments.
Credits
Text Felix Petty