Here is a record that might shake you to the core. Felsmann + Tiley’s album, “Protomensch”, has just had its premiere, but it is already sending shockwaves of fascination and inspiration. And it is not only through its music and sound design, but also via the manifesto, which is an integral part of this creation. Called “We’re an experiment. We’re the Protomensch”, it is a chilling starting point to discovering the album. Dark, honest, eye-opening. And perhaps devoid of hope. It is for you to find out and decide what the message behind it is, though. With a myriad of interpretations, “Protomensch” becomes an intimate listen. One that makes you think hard as you experience the music. And one that perhaps comes with an expectation that you will take it further, beyond the sounds, and to the real world. Calling it fascinating is an understatement. So, without further ado, please see below my conversation with Felsmann and Tiley. I hope it will shed a bit of light on this project and that it will leave you as speechless as I was, when I had heard “Protomensch” for the first time.
Bartek: The last two sentences of your manifesto “We’re an experiment. We’re the Protomensch” suggest that we are at yet another, perhaps critical, turn in our species’ evolution. What exactly do you mean by that?
Felsmann + Tiley: Humanity has always lived at the edge of contradiction: we are idiotic geniuses, caught between innovation and world-destruction, empathy and genocidal hatred. The accelerated rise of technology, however, feels like we’re indeed getting closer to a crossroads, as things once considered inherently human are more and more taken over by machines. This raises the question of what “being human” in such a world really means. We’re the Protomensch (prototype human) for what comes next. Our album focuses on the absurdity of it all, but we don’t want to – and cannot – predict what the outcome of it all will be.
Your manifesto is an integral part of your upcoming album. Why did you feel it was needed to have this narrative as an introduction to your new music?
We enjoy exploring concepts and we always write with a direction or theme in mind. The ideas behind the album lived in our heads long before we wrote a single note or even had a name for it. They guided the entire creative process – a kind of philosophical thread running quietly in the background. When the album was finished, though, it still felt incomplete – a final layer was missing to articulate our intentions. That’s why we wrote the “Manifesto.” It functions like a movie trailer or prologue, setting the scene and the tone, and giving our first-semester philosophy musings the dramatic entrance they deserve.
In the 12 tracks included on “Protomensch” you brilliantly combine contrasting elements of electronic and organic sounds. How do you see the future evolution of this type of approach to arrangement, especially during the current times, with AI-generated music becoming the centrepiece of composition for many artists? Do you see this as a temporary thing, or something that will stay for good?
It is in human nature to create, and every artist approaches that act differently. Making music is our way of expressing ourselves, and we choose not to use AI for that – it would cut out the fun part.
Just to be clear, we’re not opposed to AI in music. In fact, it’s inspiring to watch how it reshapes the landscape. It’s here to stay and it will form its own parallel world – artists who create with the help of AI and even fully AI-generated acts will co-exist with us in the future. Nevertheless, we don’t believe that the ability of AI to make great music will erase the human desire to create and express ourselves.
What I found fascinating about the music you wrote for “Protomensch” was an almost complete lack of drums/percussions.
Just as we enjoy having concepts for our albums, we also work in a concept-driven way when it comes to the music itself. Since starting the project in 2017, we’ve embraced restrictions and minimalism. Choosing to work without percussion and drums puts the focus on a strong melodic core idea, allowing it to carry the track and evolve through arrangement. It forces us to approach music differently, and we enjoy that challenge. At the same time, we love when others take our work and add drums around it – it shows the music can live in multiple forms.
On “Protomensch”, you continuously balance between calming cinematic textures, and more aggressive, dynamic sounds which could find their way on to many dance floors. What was the concept and the message behind so much sonic diversity?
Some of the themes we explore on “Protomensch” naturally called for more aggressive sounds – as we said in our manifesto: “Tragically, we’re also pretty good at destroying each other with words, guns, toxic waste, and, oh yeah, nuclear warheads.”
We enjoy sound design, and leaning into harsher, industrial sonic worlds created a deliberate contrast with the more atmospheric, epic, or reflective tracks on the album. Taken as a whole, it becomes an emotional listening journey – a bit like watching a movie. We don’t really see our music as dancefloor material, but we’re happy when it finds its way there through remixes.
If you’re not bored by having this question asked yet, I would like to ask about your musical inspirations and influences for this album. Is there any specific artist, or a genre, or any point of reference which, you could say, had an impact on your creative process this time?
We draw inspiration from film scores, neoclassical composition, and electronic music – ingredients we mix depending on the flavour we’re chasing. Sometimes it’s harsh sound design, other times a simple melody, or a journey that feels cinematic. For “Protomensch”, we leaned less on other artists and more on movies, stories, and concepts. Visuals like “Dune” or the narrative of “Past Lives” had more impact on our music than any specific musician. It’s freeing to have a project where we focus only on making what we enjoy and feel, without comparing ourselves to anyone else.
I experienced “Protomensch” as a very cinematic collection of tracks. If you were to make music for a movie, and you had a choice to work with any director, and on any genre, who/what would you say ‘yes’ to?
There’s something incredibly exciting about making music for visuals. We’re drawn to films where the score plays an active role in shaping emotion and narrative – where music can sometimes even take over the dialogue and a recognisable theme and sonic world are given space to live. Movies that are atmospheric, epic, and intense feel like a natural match for our sound. And yes, we’d love to work on a blockbuster – not just for the scale, but for the challenge…
Your manifesto reads that “We are serious people. We update LinkedIn profiles.” Do you find social media to be a destructive element of our social lives?
Social media is both shrine and landfill, blessing and curse. It connects and isolates, documents and distorts, enables and disables. It’s a perfect example of the absurdity of the human condition we’re exploring with “Protomensch”. Social media can get you a job, end your career, find you a soul mate on the other side of the planet, and cripple your real life skills to talk to that girl next door. It’s a lot like fire, you can light a candle with match sticks or burn the house down with a flame thrower.
What is your plan for bringing “Protomensch” to concert venues and how do you see the visual side of it?
An immersive show is something we’ve always wanted to do. When we started the project eight years ago, our initial idea was to perform concerts in movie theatres. The thought of a sit-down venue with a great sound system and a big screen felt like the perfect fit for our music – and it still does.
With “Protomensch”, we finally had the network and resources to bring that vision to life. We collaborated with dozens of creatives and created something we’re very proud of. We performed the show earlier this year, and we’ll be posting it on YouTube at a later stage, with the hope of adding more live performances down the track.
Which track on “Protomensch” do you view as the main focus point of the album?
Even though “Warum” opens the album and “Open Fields” was the lead single, we see “Protomensch” as one complete piece. Every track has its place in the journey, each exploring different themes and sonic worlds. There isn’t one main focus point – the album is meant to be experienced as a whole.
Finally, what would be the main emotion you would like your listeners to take away from “Protomensch”? The music stops playing, the album finishes, the concert comes to an end, and people are left to process your music on their own. What would you like them to feel?
Music is subjective and everyone experiences it differently. We’re often surprised by the emotions and visuals that come to people’s minds when they hear our work – so we don’t expect anything specific from our listeners. Once the album and everything around it is released, we will have done everything we can as artists. After that, it’s no longer ours – it belongs to whoever wants to find something in it. Apparently, that’s what Rick Rubin says – and he has a long white beard and writes books about this stuff, so we assume he knows what he’s talking about.
The “Protomensch” Manifesto extends an invitation to existential inquiry. But as with all music, its meaning shifts depending on who is listening. After finishing the album, we tried to answer this question ourselves and couldn’t put the feeling into words. That’s the power of music over language – it reaches where words cannot.
Photos: Press release
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