Electronic music and art artist Anne Wichmann went one a bit of a hiatus from her multimedia She’s Excited! project in 2023 to focus on her stripped-down rock project with brother Volker. Initially a combination of rock and darkwave electronica, SuperWAV took a new direction to loud, analog brass tacks rock with the second offering from the siblings, aTypical, released in October of 2023. Unable to stay away, Anne’s back to riding that dark wave with her new She’s Excited! offering, Moments of Sonder.
Released just under four months after SuperWAV’s aTypical, Moments of Sonder picks up where the last She’s Excited! album, Shock Therapy, left off. Also a hard-target concept album, the emotions and philosophies contained within Moments of Sonder are softer and more esoteric than those expressed in its predecessor. The music, whilst still darkwave at its core, expresses that softness and connectedness of the human experience as well. Where Shock Therapy lived up to its name with dissonant tones, gravely vocals and experimental workmanship, Moments of Sonder also channels its name with melodic tones that instill a sense of wonder. The concept of this concept is sonder itself, according to Wichmann.
‘Moments Of Sonder´ is a concept album around the phenomenon of “sonder,” an instant realization that every person has a life as complex and complicated as your own. I invite the listeners to walk through New York City (or any city of their dreams) with me: We will look up the high rises and wonder what lives unfold behind the millions of windows. We will walk down to the subway and go on a ride with Mellon Collie. We will meet amazing people and hear wonderful and sometimes difficult stories, we will briefly listen in while passing by and then move on. I hope that everyone will find their own moment of sonder in the music.
Given the title and the concept of the album, it makes sense that on Moments of Sonder, almost every track is a collab. With the emotive opener, “Celebrity Parade” a concept within a concept as Wichmann introduces the perspectives of all the other artists via her own perspective. All these other complex worlds, in fact, exist within Wichmann’s own “moment of sonder.” It’s almost a visceral experience, standing inside the mirror ball of Wichmann’s own perspective, looking here and there to see each track with each artists telling their own story. They’re vignettes into the complex worlds of others, but still not the full story.
Taking on this concept of “sonder” also allows for an incredible diversity of sound and even style that one might not normally get on another collab album. Each track is as different as the world it represents. Trap artist Komputer‘s track, “All I Need,” for example, is melodic, desolate and emotional, whilst the very next track, “Alone Together” with Joana Brabo is a spooky musique concrète-style spoken word over a loop. The album runs the gamut from the afore-mentioned trap to post punk to house music to trip hop cheeky nods to vintage adult contempo. It’s all meant to offer different views, and that point of sonder is driven home with each passing track.
Moments of Sonder is about as complex of a concept as one can attempt to cram into an album, but with the way Wichmann has put it together, it doesn’t seem so abstract. With the idea of “sonder” being just a flash of awareness, this album urges the listener to stay in that feeling and experience another perspective, and another, and another, until it doesn’t feel so strange. We’re all connected, after all, and feeling that on such a literal level can never be a bad thing. It could even be the next step in human consciousness evolution. One would expect less nothing less than such an intricate offering from an artist like Wichmann.
Moments of Sonder is out now and can be streamed on Spotify.