Ahead of their upcoming album Protomensch (out 2/13 on Mute), today German synth-duo Felsmann + Tiley (Dominik Felsmann and Patrick Tiley) return to welcome the New Year with “God Is Lonelier” (ft. Laius), a cinematic and introspective track steeped in the notion of prophetic solitude.
While the most immediately recent track “Reset” focused on pause and reflection, “God Is Lonelier” examines the quiet that follows once the spotlight fades.
Listen to “God Is Lonelier” HERE.
Pre-order Protomensch HERE.
The band elaborate on the track: “God Is Lonelier dives directly into the ‘Playing God’ side of our manifesto. It looks at our instinct to grow, optimise, conquer and dominate - all the ways in which we try to shape the world, and ourselves, into something more powerful and controlling. But we play God while being inherently human, and that tension sits at the heart of the song. The more control and power we gain, the more disconnected we become. Power and loneliness start rising in parallel, and the protagonist in the lyrics learns this the hard way. Once we reach our seemingly god-like ideal, we often realise we’re more isolated than before. Paradoxically, striving for greatness can quietly pull us away from the very connection we hoped it would bring.”
“God Is Lonelier” follows the previous release of album tracks “Reset,” “OPIOID,” “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.”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.”
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