A Winged Victory for the Sullen

A Winged Victory for the Sullen

A Winged Victory for the Sullen is a German ambient and modern classical group made up of Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Wiltzie. The project begins with a friendship: O’Halloran and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie meet backstage in 2007, introduced by a mutual friend, Francesco Donadello, who later becomes their long-term collaborative sound engineer.

Formation and early work

The duo first records and performs as a collaboration between Wiltzie, who is also a member of Stars of the Lid, and pianist and composer Dustin O’Halloran. Their sound combines Wiltzie’s ambient guitar drone with O’Halloran’s sparse piano. Their self-titled debut album appears in 2011 and establishes the group’s distinctive approach, using seven harmonic landscapes and drawing on the acoustics of recording spaces such as Berlin’s Grunewald Church and the GDR radio studios along the River Spree.

Later releases and scoring work

In 2013 the group records more than sixty minutes of music while working on the score for a new work by Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne McGregor. This process pushes their sound further towards electronics. The result is Atomos, released on Erased Tapes in 2014, which keeps their chamber-like character while adding electronics, harp and modular synthesizers. In January 2017 the physical release of their score for French director Jalil Lespert’s thriller Iris appears.

Performances

A Winged Victory for the Sullen also performs at major venues, including a sold-out Boiler Room performance at London’s Barbican and a BBC Proms concert at the Royal Albert Hall, curated by Mary Anne Hobbs in 2015.