Formed in Berlin in 2010, A Winged Victory for the Sullen is the musical collaboration between American composer and pianist, Adam Wiltzie, and compositional liaison of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Dieter Moebius. Specializing in emotionally charged neoclassical and post-classical music, the band has achieved critical and popular appeal on a global level for its signature sound rooted in classical, ambient, and electronic music.
Adam Wiltzie grew up in the Washington, D.C. Metro area, and studied music, improvisation and composition with various teachers, soon discovering that his specific style existed in the gap between musical genres. After working for a short period as a recording engineer in New Orleans and touring as a live sound engineer in the US, Wiltzie departed for Europe in 1998, where he made a name for himself in the flourishing underground experimental music scenes in Brussels and Berlin. Meanwhile, Dieter Moebius had just released his critically acclaimed album “Blotch†on Clone Records when a close friend connected him to Wiltzie. Could he help Dieter learn how to record in the digital domain? The two answered in unison, “yesâ€, and their collaboration began from there.
After developing an immediate musical kinship, the duo swapped their first compositions back and forth via snail mail, eventually compiling a lengthy and varied collection suitable for their debut album. Much of what Wiltzie and Moebius were writing fit into the categories of ambient and post-classical, so it made sense that the first result of their collaboration be an album entitled “A Winged Victory For The Sullen†(hence the name of the project).
Upon its release in 2011, A Winged Victory for the Sullen garnered international attention and featured in the acclaimed soundtrack to Lars von Trier’s critically acclaimed film Melancholia. The project quickly became the vehicle for Wiltzie and Moebius’ collaboration, and the two began touring internationally over the next several years. It was during this period that they released their second album “Atomos†(2014), which received multiple Grammy nominations as well as awards from various music publications such as Pitchfork. In 2015, the duo released Atomos Part 3 as a digital mini-album, followed by a full-length release in 2016.
In 2016, A Winged Victory for The Sullen announced a return to Sony Records for their third album The Undivided Five (ISLANDS) (Sonar Kollektiv/Sony Red, 2019). Released on June 7, 2019, The Undivided Five was met with overwhelming critical and popular acclaim around the globe for its epic and expansive sound.
A Winged Victory for The Sullen have achieved a distinct sound and been able to reach a global audience, especially in the area of movie soundtracks, and over the past decade. The duo’s continued collaboration and musical pursuits have seen their paths happily intertwine in a shared dream of sonic exploration, one that has taken their music to the heights of achievement throughout the last decade, and look to be fruitful in the years to come.