Ahead of their upcoming album Protomensch (out 2/13 on Mute), today German synth-duo Felsmann + Tiley (Dominik Felsmann and Patrick Tiley) have shared another new track “OPIOID” (ft. Pet Deaths) and its accompanying video. “OPIOID” pulses with dark, anxious synths and polyrhythmic beats that feel equally claustrophobic and euphoric. The track examines the cycles of self-destruction people are inevitably drawn to, extending far beyond chemical addiction to the everyday rituals of consumption and control.
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Speaking on the track the band say: “We use and we abuse. We create and we destroy. Others and ourselves. Our medication is also our poison. We know it’s stupid, but we can’t help it. To clarify, It’s not just about drugs - it’s about every form of addictive self-soothing and self-destruction we engage in, from consumerism and work to digital validation.”
Director of the video, Tim Hunkemöller says: "The music video for Felsmann+Tiley's "OPIOID" evokes a paranoid and hectic state mirroring the psychological turmoil of those seeking escape from the horrors of life and society. I aimed to create an interplay of perspectives shifting from outside world to inner world, merging abstract POV's and hypnotic shapes that imitate lights hitting the retina behind closed eyelids, which ultimately culminates into a crescendo in which music and visual merge into an overflowing stream of information.” “OPIOID” follows the previous release of album tracks “Warnung,” “Warum”, “Open Fields (Ft. The Kite String Tangle)” and “Gabriel.”About Felsmann + Tiley
How long can an artist with instantly recognizable sound stay anonymous? For years, apparently. Take Felsmann + Tiley’s reinterpretation of M83’s “Solitude,” a track that has over 200 million streams to date. Very few of those listeners know the story of evolution behind the German producer-duo’s drumless synthwave melding Cliff Martinez-style maximum emotional impact with Nils Frahm’s neoclassical minimalism. Nor are they familiar with their body of work that has reached wider audiences after featuring on BAFTA-winning crime series “Top Boy” and Acne Studios fashion shows. Slated for release in February 2026, their upcoming album Protomensch is an audiovisual statement on the absurdity of modern existence. Having met by happenstance in 2003 on a German music production forum called MyOwnMusic.de, Felsmann + Tiley soon discovered they shared a lot more than their hometown of Stuttgart. “We were attracted to the depth and melancholy of trance pads and breakdowns that always had a certain darkness to them.” Their 12-inch Ghosts under an alias Kamui was followed by a string of blistering belters by five other aliases released on different labels, all linked by thick and heavy club sound. “And then from 2006 onwards we also started touring and doing DJ gigs all around the world.”It was the sixth alias Felsmann + Tiley formed in 2017 that stuck. “We were having a conversation over the phone and said: Let’s mix what we like about dance music. Melancholy with reduced neoclassic bits focused on melodies and the film epicness,” they remember. What started off as a pitch deck full of big ideas and even bigger visions would take eight years to grow into an ambitious, all-out artistic vision involving immersive live experiences and a social commentary on the current state of the world.
Looking back on the duo’s body of work, the early signs of major success were there from the start. One of the standout tracks called “October” off their debut album Tempora (2018), a 21st century take on Vivaldi’s cyclical Four Seasons, was featured on the late Andrew Weatherall’s final radio show for NTS Radio and Michel Gaubert’s set for the Swedish fashion house Acne Studios. What’s more, the album also caught the attention of DEF, the management agency of Moby, Robyn, Fever Ray, and Röyksopp.
By contrast, their follow up EP Weltschmerz (Engl. “world weary”), a pitch-perfect post-mortem on the clubland during Covid-lockdown, was nothing short of homecoming. “At the time we were knee deep in philosophy and reading up a lot on existential nihilism,” the duo explains. “Everything was dark, so on the music we made like Homo Deus there are all these off-tune elements combined with organ plugins and bass. That core melancholy goes all the way back to 2003. That’s our DNA at the end of the day.”
Having got the existential dread out of their system, there was more room for the life-affirming cinematic exploration that is front and center on the 2022 EP Retrovision, a record based on cinematic scenes. A bunch of kids outside living life to the fullest (“Vision Genesis”). A drive back home late at night through the city (“Vision Night Drive”).
Where the visually-heightened sound reached wider audiences were sync placements for the reinterpretations of the songs by high-calibre artists: “The Most Beautiful Boy” by The Irrepressibles, the lead track on teen drama “Young Royals 2” and “Solitude” by M83 appeared on the gritty British crime series “Top Boy,” two tracks later released on Mute Records and Deutsche Grammophon that since then have racked up over 200 million streams.
Felsmann + Tiley’s passion for putting their very own stamp on vocal driven tracks is evident on the standout moments of their upcoming concept album Protomensch (Engl. “proto-human”), where the darkest shades of shimmering synthwave, pounding trance and introspective IDM are lit up with synth-pop songs by guest vocalists including London-based alternative outfit Pet Deaths, Australian solo-artists The Kite String Tangle, Woodes and Laius.
This juxtaposition between sentient beings and machines permeates the whole album, right from the Felsmann + Tiley manifesto introducing us to the highly-intelligent yet irrevocably-shortsighted and downright tragic character of Protomensch, to the cover artwork featuring a turtleneck wearing chimpanzee, futuristic music videos and stark social media aesthetics, to seated, next-level live-shows involving collaboration with dozens of visual artists.
More to the point, the release of Protomensch marks the moment their full artistic vision – as they envisaged back in 2017 – will be brought to fruition for the first time. However, at the same time it also marks the moment of realization for Felsmann + Tiley. As the Stoic philosopher Seneca put it, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
