Photographer and musician Wolfgang Tillmans has dropped his self-directed visual album Fragile, ahead of his EP That’s Desire/Here We Are release this Friday.
The pulsating 27-minute long video features performances from model, actress and activist Hari Nef, Karis Wilde, Matthew Salinas, Bashir Daviid Naim and more, as well as Tillmans himself and fellow band members Juan Pablo Echeverri, Jay Pluck, Kyle Combs, Tom Roach and Daniel Pearce.
The people populating the music video dance and improvise to the music on first listen. In a statement about the visuals, the German musician and artist explained that the four songs were written and recorded in a ‘post Brexit/pre Trump’ era. He also stated that “Warm Star”, a “love song with political overtones”, includes lyrics from his anti-Brexit campaign posters.
“I wanted the overall feel of the EP to be reflecting the desire to carry on and live our lives in a quest for personal happiness, whatever the circumstances are,” he said. “We need to protest and campaign, but this shouldn’t stop us from reaffirming love and life, here and now.”
It follows Tillmans’ synthy house and techno EP 2016/1986 and Device Control, which also featured a Salem remix. The visual artist’s “Device Control” tune additionally and unexpectedly popped up in Frank Ocean’s own visual album Endless.
“I’m grateful for the trust and openness each dancer, actor, performer brought to this project,” Tillmans added. “Giving everything in a white blank space to the sound of a boombox, a set of coloured gels in front of the window being the only production props.”
Check out Fragile below. The accompanying EP will be available December 9 as a vinyl and digital download, streaming on Spotify and iTunes.
