Dazed Mix: Ludwig Wandinger

This month’s mix runs darker than usual to match the winter months. Featuring an experimental selection of tracks that go between harsh club sonics and brief moments of ambient reflection, Ludwig Wandinger's January mix is exactly the sort of music to hibernate to, punctuated with ethereal interludes perfect for the shifting seasons. It follows on from the Berlin producer and drummer’s album Is Peace Wild?, released last month on Caterina Barbieri’s light-years, which came accompanied by dreamy cover art by photographer Female Pentimento, and features contributions from multi-disciplinary artist, poet and activist Yves B Golden and PAN’s Evita Manji. Across nine hypnagogic tracks, Wandinger, a classically-trained musician, oscillates between light and darkness, inviting listeners to reflect inwards on themselves. “The music to me really started off as inventing myself musical medicine/lullabies to cope with my daily life,” he explains. 

Wandinger describes the mix as “an uncomfortable amount of unreleased material of mine; some calm as well as some of my own harsher club material plus some timeless rather recent releases from some beautiful musicians I like.” Listen to it above. 

Hi Ludwig, how’s your winter going? 

Ludwig Wandinger: I’m full-on hibernating right now. It’s dark but somehow I usually get most of my stuff done during the endless months of grey bleakness in Berlin. Finishing existing music, starting loads of new music, preparing and playing some shows, painting, zoning out, waiting for the sun to come back eventually.

Congrats on Is Peace Wild? – what are some of your main touchstones for the album?

Ludwig Wandinger: Thank you! The music to me really started off as inventing myself musical medicine/ lullabies to cope with my daily life. Somehow I was lucky enough to not let this concept restrict me but let it guide me into a world inside of me instead. What I found there evolved in many different ways, so in contrast to the rather soothing energy most of the album has, there are some quite conflicting tracks in contrast to it as well.

Regarding inspiration, there are definitely two tracks from Aphex Twin that hold a special place in my heart since years that might have informed me letting this music happen the way it did. Also something that had a similar musical quality was this organ album featuring singer Lusine Zakarian called Armenian Medieval Spiritual Music that I really like.

What was the thinking behind the album title?

Ludwig Wandinger: It’s taken from the poem “Is Peace Wild?” by my dear friend, artist and writer Yves B Golden. You can hear her reading it on the opening track of the album. It’s one of those phrases that stuck with me and gave me the impulse to rethink what it means to me, and I really liked that quality in something. I’m pretty sure a lot of people interpret it differently which I adore as well.

I saw that Female Pentimento did the album cover for this. How did that collaboration come about? What sort of ideas informed the artwork?

Ludwig Wandinger: I got lucky to work on female pentimento’s own beautiful music for the track above and we got to know each other a little bit during this very nice process and, since I loved her visual art, I decided to commission her for my album art later. The process of finding the artwork was a beautiful merging between what my music seemed to communicate without words and Nathaniel’s beautiful ideas and eye-opening perspective on life and true beauty.

How important is collaboration for you in your music creation? Do you have any favourite collaborations?

Ludwig Wandinger: I grew up making music in bands and still do that to this day, but had to step back from doing too much band stuff three years ago to start taking my own ideas more seriously. However I still love collaborating with other people and do it more than ever, it is a perfect way to not overthink while making music and reconnect with why you started making music.

One thing to add is that the current state of the music industry is so bad that I almost don’t care anymore if the music gets released or not, the most important part for me is the moment of creating it. There is tons of music on my hard drives I made with artists and friends like John Object, Evita Manji, Luka Aron, Grischa Lichtenberger, Skee Mask, Sara Persico, Elvin Brandhi, TRYCE, FITNESSS, Basak Günak, David August, Agnese Menguzatto, Lukas Oppenheimer, Klahrk, Ydegirl, Zylva, xato and a lot more that might never be listened to by anyone except us, and that is ok! I love creating different music and not to stick to any genre too much. I love jumping between different music scenes because of that.

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?

Ludwig Wandinger: That must have been something I was told during my four years of studying music at the Jazz Institute Berlin. I can’t even recall it.. but I guess if you follow a bad advice you’ll still learn from in it in the end, so it’s just about not getting stuck and stop pursuing or trying out things in life I think.

And the best?

Ludwig Wandinger: Something along the lines of making art that is true to yourself and is created for yourself.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Ludwig Wandinger: My Telegram chats are filled with music demos I made with my friends that I blast nonstop but also I’m really into Mica Levi, Otro and REBE, Babyxsosa, Neil Young, my dear band Roomer, Chuquimamani-Condori, Helvetia, Yorck Street, Penderecki, Florence Sinclair, Matthias Engelke, Sadness.

Tell us about your Dazed mix.

Ludwig Wandinger: I thought about doing a super experimental one at first but then opted for a rather… fun one. It’s an uncomfortable amount of unreleased material of mine; some calm as well as some of my own harsher club material plus some timeless rather recent releases from some beautiful musicians I like. I tried to create some nice contrasting moments that I aim to create when performing my own music live. (So yes there is John Object followed by Stina Nordenstam).

Listen to Ludwig Wandinger’s exclusive Dazed Mix above.