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The album »Balta« got reviewed on Post-Punk.com. Thanks to Alice Teeple, especially for her wonderful introduction.Read her review here!

Balta (2026)

“Balta” is an album in the space between electronics, post-punk, and folk music. The songs were inspired by real conversations with real people, and deal with the fear of growing fascism in Germany, the current situation of people from Eastern Europe, and diffused hope of the better. The album sees Berlin-based recording artist, Roman Wilhelm, reduce his compositions to the song. “The Beach (Daina #1)” begins with a self-written Latvian poem in traditional style. “Aufbruch” expresses the artist’s admiration for Berlin’s most famous chansonnière, Hildegard Knef, and juxtaposes a World War II refugee story to the dangerous banality of young fascism in Germany. “I Need Nida” was inspired by a short message from the hero of the song, Russian dissident Katya, while “Ambivalentopia” brings together names in different languages for border towns, often neglected by the respective other side. “Exchange” is a result of the artist’s occupation as an academic international exchange coordinator. “KWC” is a belated goodbye to a dead friend. Both songs originated in bracket melodies on the previous album, “mooncake songs”. “Hotel” describes a real situation of a hotel manager admitting not to have declined the booking of a right-wing group, and apparently regretting his decision. “An Old Fort” and “Take This Town (Daina #2)” depict a lyrical departure from the album theme, taking the listener on a walk through the ruined remains of German-Polish town, Kostrzyn/Küstrin, leaving the question if history will repeat itself. All in all, “Balta” features simpler songs than its predecessor “mooncake songs | 月餅歌”, yet is leaving more space for experiment.

Limited vinyl LP (100 copies) with inside-out printed sleeve, blank inner sleeve, a laser-/letterpress-printed lyric sheet and a linocut-/letterpress-printed art card. If you fancy a copy, do let me know!

Voices from the music press

»Balta looks toward Germany and Eastern Europe at a moment when political anxiety has become increasingly difficult to leave outside the rehearsal room. Wilhelm addresses the rise of the political right in Germany, intolerance, artistic freedom, gender stereotypes, and the unease surrounding developments farther east, drawing much of the material from events he has witnessed and conversations with people whose lives intersect with these pressures.«
—Alice Teeple (Post-Punk.com), August 2026—

Aufbruch (video)

A visual of the single to the album, “Aufbruch” (Departure) was shot in Berlin Hasenheide public park in May 2026 during a thunderstorm, cut and produced by Roman himself. The song was first inspired by a poem written by a German refugee from Silesia back in the years after 1945, about their arrival and ‘reception’ in West Germany (“Wir stehen dabei—We Stand Aside” being the original title of that unpublished poem), and combines that experience of forced migration with the worries about the growing far-right in Germany:

Hotel (video)

Video to the odd track to the album, “Hotel”, shot in Berlin June 2026, cut and produced by Roman himself. The song quite accurately repeats a conversation with a hotel keeper in Saxony, Eastern Germany, trying to aggressively justify for having opened up his doors to a group of far-right politicians and AfD party members, and describes my deep worry about growing fascism in Germany:

mooncake songs 月餅歌 (2025)

The album was written between 2002 and 2015, during my numerous stays in China—lyrics were completed and the recording done between 2021 and 2025 in Berlin. Featuring songs in German, English and Chinese, the album circles around an increasingly complicated relationship—not to a person, but to a whole country. In analogy to a mooncake, many of the songs are ‘wrapped’ in a exterior layer of aimless melody and sound. Most of the music is on an electronic basis, however containing distinctly acoustic moments.

Voices from the music press

»Ein schräger Mix aus fernöstlichen Klängen und avantgardistisch eingesetzter Elektronik erzählt Geschichten. Die Sprache ist Deutsch, manchmal Chinesisch. Doch auch ohne Sprachverständnis funktionieren die Stories: in Form von Klängen, die eine bestimmte Atmosphäre und damit das ganz eigene Kopfkino erschaffen.«
—Maria Vain (Orkus!), October 2025—

»The music is primarily electronic, but it never feels sealed off from touch. Wilhelm’s palette draws from post-punk, Krautrock, goth, and folk, with clear lines back to artists who treated structure and voice as tools for observation rather than release. […] In all, this is a truly unique collection of songs with clever experimentation, biting wit, and bizarre twists and turns.«
—Alice Teeple (Post-Punk.com), December 2025—

»mooncake songs 月餅歌« got reviewed on Post-Punk.com. Thanks to Alice Teeple for her outstanding work. Nobody has ever yet written about my music in such detail. Read her review here!

mooncake songs 月餅歌 vinyl LP (2025)

From December 13, 2025 on, the vinyl LP is sold via Soundcloud Vinyl-on-demand. Cut from the original 80 minutes to 46 minutes in length, the vinyl represents an alternate version of the album, more song-oriented and of less experimental feel. Fancy a copy? Just click here to be directed to the shop (not active before December 13, 2025).

Vinyl LP versions

Sportfest (video)

A visual of the single to the album, “Sportfest” (Sports Day) was shot in Berlin Neukölln and Mitte districts in September 2025, cut and produced by Roman himself. The song deals with large-scale sports events in the context of totalitarian rule and was first inspired by the Beijing Olympics 2007 and 2019: