FIBER Podcast number 39 is part of a triptych of three podcasts that will be released shortly after each other. With this, FIBER celebrates almost 10 years of sets and live recordings. We end this series at #40 and prepare for something new. Thanks to all artists, followers and listeners.

The second piece in the FIBER Podcast closing triptych comes from Amsterdam based duo Wanderwelle. Phil van Dulm and Alexander Bartels have been making music together since their high school years. They often use a conceptual approach and find inspiration in the history of art, nature and combine these things in their music. With releases on Silent Season and performances in museums they are a perfect fit for the FIBER Podcast series. Listen to their podcast and find the interview about their visual inspiration sources below.

What role does the visual medium play in your work?

The visual medium plays a huge part in our studio albums and our live sets. Films by Tarkovsky and Bergman are a great inspiration for us, as well as the works of contemporary filmmakers like Von Trier, Lynch, Eggers and Aster. Unfortunately The Netherlands does not have too many great film directors working right now, luckily Van Warmerdam and Van Driel are making us very happy with their films. Aside from cinema, we take great inspiration from art history and literature.

At the Van Gogh museum, we premiered our first site-specific performance ‘Reapers’ amongst the paintings. The twenty minute piece was inspired by the reapers and mowers by Van Gogh, Millet and Hodler.

Last year, we finished the script for our first graphic novel. At the moment, we are giving it shape together with our favorite illustrator in Amsterdam. We cannot wait to share some more details soon. At the start we did not expect the process to be far more time consuming than making an album, but it will be totally worth it. It is amazing to see your ideas illustrated by an artist instead of the usual translation of our ideas into sound.

How do you go about making music in order to spark the imagination?

When creating music, field recordings are a very effective way to create a cinematic, almost visual experience, as they immediately push the listener into a certain atmosphere. For our upcoming album, which is our first electro acoustic work, we used and manipulated more abstract recordings to make things more ambiguous, while still adhering to a clear leitmotiv. The album will focus on the many aspects of decay: from shipwrecks to natural erosion, and from archeological digs to false prophets. The album will be released next month, keep an eye on our socials the coming weeks for the official announcement.

Could you choose a visual companion piece for your podcast and elaborate your decision for this piece?

One of our favorite tracks in this showcase is one from Jan Jelineks’ Zwischen project, an album consisting of twelve sound poetry collages using interview answers by prolific artists. The track we used contains voice fragments of one of our favorite German artists: Joseph Beuys. He was one of the leading figures in art from post-war Germany. Beuys created his own mythology, which was his main inspiration for his work and often held public debates on environmental, social and political subjects. The chosen artwork is a result of one of his speeches, where he used a chalkboard to visualize his ideas. This work is called ‘Letter from London’ (1974), which we read about when we ourselves were in London for one of our favorite gigs until now: our performance at Cafe Oto.

Interview by Fabian van Sluijs | Podcast curation by Luuk Meuffels
Image: Blackboard (Schultafel) (1974), Joseph Beuys

Also check podcast Number 38 by Fenna Fiction.