When YEDM initially interviewed German darkwave powerhouse and multimedia artist Anne Wichmann mid-pandemic, we lined a number of matters, from the COVID lockdown to her movies to her usually “difficult” psyche, however the truth that she had additionally made music together with her brother, guitarist Volker Wichmann, within the early 00s. The partnership presumably ended when Anne moved to Brooklyn from their native Hamburg, Germany. Now, nearly 20 years later, the duo have reunited (though they nonetheless reside on totally different continents) to create SuperWAV, a stripped down rock undertaking that simply launched its second EP, aTypical.
Given Anne’s largely darkwave and electro background and the truth that the siblings possible had to make use of numerous digital tech to create the music collectively as a consequence of their bodily distance, SuperWAV is surprisingly sparse in relation to digital musical components. They’re current, however the pair has been decidedly centered on brass tacks with each their debut EP, Elements, and the just-dropped aTypical. According to Anne:
We wished the songs to be simple, direct and in your face. Basically: Let’s take out all the things that the track doesn’t want. Reduce it to pure guts! The theme of (character) archetypes is a fancy one, and its exploration is including a considerate layer to the music.
Despite the stripped-down, naked bones rock really feel to aTypical, it’s additionally definitely true that it’s a really nuanced EP. One might count on nothing much less from Anne Wichmann and her blood relations. Each monitor is named after one of many 5 character archetypes; each the lyrics and music are supposed to be an interpretation of every one. “The Lover,” for instance, is tough and passionate and explores the outdated adage, “love is blind” within the lyrics, whereas “The Innocent” is stuffed with ambient echo and the lyrics focus on the inevitable destruction of innocence.
Dubbed “stoner rock” by the band themselves, followers of Anne’s former initiatives will battle to search out the connection to her outdated darkwave work however it is there in refined methods. While they wished to maintain the music on the punk fringe of publish punk or the minimal fringe of grunge, there are nonetheless components of drone and darkwave within the background manufacturing and tone of the album, respectively. SuperWAV’s first EP, 2018’s Elements had extra apparent connections to electronica, however the backing manufacturing, association and engineering of aTypical relied on that darkwave data from previous initiatives, in keeping with Volker.
It’s a lot enjoyable to work collectively once more, and thrilling to search out new methods of collaborating throughout such a protracted distance. For ATYPICAL it appears like we picked up the place RAWJAW (the Wichmanns’ earlier band within the early 00s) ended – but discovering our personal sound of right now in each tune.
No matter what you name this new Wichmann undertaking, followers will possible see the sister-brother duo going backwards and forwards over the strains of analog and digital in some ways because the proceed to develop the undertaking. It appears to be a focal point for each of them. In the meantime, SuperWAV are constructing a brilliant wave of a discography and followers ought to count on the sudden from this dynamic musical duo.
aTypical is out now and will be streamed on Spotify.
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