whoiswelanski. A German band from deepest rural Upper Bavaria that uses pretty much everything from acoustic drums to digital noise, and instead of swaying in the beer tent, runs a virtual gallery for art and music in the metaverse. The question remains: Who is Welanski? 

Whoiswelanski, consisting of Tobias Weber and Josef Pötzinger, still leaves us in the dark with this question. Sometimes they say Welanski is a fictional character, a kind of digital ego, other times it’s just a Dadaist neologism. One thing is clear: the two Welanskis make insanely intense alternative pop that grins rhythmically and melodically around the corner in such a sophisticated way that you might think you shared a dorm room at a songwriting camp with Bon Iver. 

Their debut single „16 Hertz“ in September 2019 was followed by awards from SZ Junge Leute and BR Puls as „Band of the Week“ and acceptance into the „Bandpool“ support program of the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg. They also played their first live shows (supporting „Die Sauna“ and „Die Kerzen“, among others) and released further singles, all of which can be heard on the debut album „Talk“ released in September 2020. After that, the magazine The Postie wrote about whoiswelanski as one of the most exciting projects in Bavaria right now. In 2021, whoiswelanski released their EP called „Computer, Sex, Antibiotics“ – a psychedelic-melancholic exploration of hedonism. Visually, the whole thing is brought to the point in an aesthetically pleasing music video with an ironic touch. The music itself is handmade – analog warmth in a modern guise. 

Now a new path is to be taken with the upcoming album. Synthetic sounds gain the upper hand and it is sung in English. The two feel comfortable with their mixture of electronic sounds and real instruments. Role models here are probably bands like Big Red Machine, Caribou or Floating Points. 

Their music is supposed to embody more the „contrast than the reflection of society“. A little like their musical existence in the Upper Bavarian idyll, where they astonish many a local with their daily hours of work in the studio basement. In that basement, the musicians, who have been friends since elementary school days, write their wild pop, record everything themselves and keep screwing away until the music comes together as a whole. One can be curious where this journey will lead and who or what this Welanski actually is.