Joke Lanz has always been a master of contradictions – sound poet and sonic vandal, noise provocateur and collage craftsman, prankster and philosopher. With Zungsang, recently reissued in a beautifully remastered LP edition on Force Majeure, Lanz dives deeper into his most personal and surreal terrain to date: a hallucinatory ode to outsider artist Adolf Wolfli, stitched together from theatre remnants, inner demons, and echoes from psychiatric corridors past.
This is not just an album – it’s a sonic autopsy of the self, a carnival of voices, tics, tape loops, and shattered lullabies. In conversation, Lanz is generous, sharp, and unafraid to poke fun at both himself and the artform he’s helped reshape across decades, whether as part of Sudden Infant, Schimpfluch Gruppe, or on his own volatile terms.
In this interview, we talk about haunted hospitals, fake mythologies, structured chaos, laughter as composition, and yes, why your skin could never feel quite like a digital file. Welcome to Zungsang – where the line between theatre and breakdown, play and exorcism, joke and revelation is deliciously unstable.
Chain D.L.K.: “Zungsang” is described as a ‘hallucinating journey’ – how would you personally summarize the state of mind you wanted to provoke in listeners? Nightmare, fairytale, or field report?
Joke Lanz: It’s a bit like the little devil and the little angel in your head. It can quickly go one way or the other. There’s a friendly face on the front cover. But behind that friendly face may be an abyss. Just look into your own mirror!
Chain D.L.K.: The album is dedicated to Adolf Wolfli, an icon of art brut. What does his legacy mean to you – and how does it echo through your own sonic collage work?
Joke Lanz: Adolf Wolfli’s work had a strong impact on me. His complex universe feels like a retreat to me. Like a child that has fallen into its own little world.
Chain D.L.K.: Did the ghosts of the psychiatric hospital in Bern whisper to you while recording, or did they shout?
Joke Lanz: I’ve once been a patient myself. Only for a short time, but I know what it feels to be locked up to a place where the clocks are ticking differently. I heard a lot of whispering. No shouting!
Chain D.L.K.: The album includes voice, electronics, and contributions from multiple artists – what kind of directions did you give your collaborators? Were they navigating a score, a mood board, or complete chaos?
Joke Lanz: Most of the artists’ contributions were recorded way before I started the process of composing the Zungsang tracks. Some recordings are from a theatre play where I had the leading role as Adolf Wlfli.
Chain D.L.K.: With tracks titled like “Kater Gott und Hund” and “Urial von Gobizorn”, is there an internal mythology behind the names – or are these linguistic found objects?
Joke Lanz: The titles are partly taken from Wlfli’s body of work and partly written by myself. I love experimenting with words, inventing new word creations, or simply developing childlike thoughts.
Chain D.L.K.: Do you view “Zungsang” as a narrative album, an abstract painting, or something else entirely – maybe a sonic cabinet of curiosities?
Joke Lanz: I see it more as a collection of scenes and memories from a troubled life. There are different parts like in a theatre play or when life runs backwards in front of your inner eye. Sometimes nightmarish sequences are also included.
Chain D.L.K.: How does the remastered LP version differ sonically or emotionally from the original cassette edition? What made you want to revisit and expand it now?
Joke Lanz: The remastered LP is sonically more crispy and deeper than the original cassette version. Beat Keller did a great job in his mastering studio in Switzerland. After the original cassette edition sold out very quickly, and the reactions to the music were very positive, I decided to plan a vinyl version with additional tracks. That’s when Stephane approached me and suggested an LP version on his label. I’m extremely happy with the result.
Chain D.L.K.: Many people describe your sound as unsettling, humorous, and disorienting. What balance of absurdity and sincerity do you aim for, if any?
Joke Lanz: The description is relatively accurate. These are sometimes the factors that occur again and again in everyone’s life. We often feel insecure and disorientated in daily situations. It’s not all the same rhythm or the same color. But humor helps to look at things differently in such moments. I process my everyday experience into my music, that’s the balance I aim for.
Chain D.L.K.: Noise is a slippery word. How do you define it? And what do you think people most often misunderstand about it?
Joke Lanz: Indeed! Most people only understand noise music as harsh noise or power-electronics. For me, noise also has an emotional level. Emotions are often irrational; you can’t categorize them. And so is noise music. Noise can be everything and nothing.
Chain D.L.K.: You often incorporate laughter, vocal tics, and disjointed phrases – do you consider your voice an instrument or a character in your pieces?
Joke Lanz: My body is just as much an instrument as my electronics. My voice as part of my body can reflect my inner state, and my different inner personalities, baby, child, teenager, adult, happy person, sad person, angry person, confused person etc.
Chain D.L.K.: Does silence still scare you, or is it just another building block in your arsenal?
Joke Lanz: It sometimes scares me, it sometimes gives me joy. Silence is very powerful and powerful things have a strong impact on sensitive creatures. I love to use silence as a musical stylistic device.
Chain D.L.K.: The album sounds like it’s teetering on the edge of collapse at times – how much of that is structured chaos versus raw improvisation?
Joke Lanz: Zungsang is purely composed, although I really like the term “structured chaos”. Within some of the compositions, I left quite a bit of space for chaos and even some elements of improvisation. I love moving on thin ice, always with the risk of falling into the cold water.
Chain D.L.K.: Pole Ka’s artwork and Lasse Marhaug’s design play a big role in “Zungsang”. What was your concept for the visual side of the release – and how did it relate to the sound?
Joke Lanz: Pole Ka already did the artwork for the original cassette edition which was released in 2021 on her own label Vice de Forme. That’s why I wanted her to rework the illustration for the LP version and combine it with a photo of me. Pole Ka has created several of her fantastic illustrations for me in the past. I really appreciate her work. Also, Lasse Marhaug, as an old friend from the early days of noise music, has become a steady collaborator when it comes to design work.
Chain D.L.K.: Vinyl and cassette seem to suit your work – do you feel digital formats lose something essential, or are they just another delivery system for madness?
Joke Lanz: I grew up with cassettes and vinyl. These formats were part of my childhood and teenage years. And I still love that organic sound! Digital formats definitely lose something. It’s not for nothing that Bryan Ferry says “… your skin is like vinyl” and not “… your skin is like digital disc”!
Chain D.L.K.: What’s the ideal setting to experience “Zungsang”? Headphones in bed? A gallery? A psychiatric ward full of bird skeletons?
Joke Lanz: Either headphone in a packed underground train or maximum volume on a shitty p.a. system at a squat party!
Chain D.L.K.: You’ve performed with Sudden Infant, Schimpfluch Gruppe, and solo in countless forms. What does the “Zungsang” project allow you to explore that you couldn’t elsewhere?
Joke Lanz: Zungsang allowed me to go deeper into my universe of sound and inner life. Most of the compositions were written during the COVID-19 pandemic when I was at home in my studio and had a lot of time reflecting on the meaning of all this and other things. I felt a bit like I was in a closed institution.
Chain D.L.K.: Your performances are often confrontational, theatrical, and visceral. Do you think of Joke Lanz the performer and Joke Lanz the composer as different people – or just different moods?
Joke Lanz: No, it’s exactly the same person. But there are different personalities in this one person. When on stage I become a performer to release my energy and break down inhibitions, when in the studio I become a focused composer and sound artist to transform my ideas into musical pieces.
Chain D.L.K.: You’ve worked across noise, improvisation, turntablism, and more. Is there a genre or medium you’ve yet to violate but are itching to? Ballet, maybe? Opera for squirrels?
Joke Lanz: One thing I’d love to do before it’s too late is to work with a children choir on a big concert hall stage. I once did an afternoon at the Henie Onstad Art Center in Oslo called “Noise for Kids” where I encouraged the children and their parents to make noise with me. It was fantastic! Kids have enormous power and creativity.
Chain D.L.K.: The album is also dedicated to Stphane (1965–2024). Can you speak about who he was, and what part of “Zungsang” carries his spirit?
Joke Lanz: Stphane was the owner of Force Majeure label. He was a wonderful human being, dedicating his life to experimental and outsider music. He offered me to release Zungsang as an LP on his label shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly he lost the battle against the tumour. With the great help of his best friend Sylvie (Nuit et Brouillard) we completed the production. Stphane’s spirit is definitely on this record since he was a big admirer of Art Brut and in particular of Adolf Wlfli.
Chain D.L.K.: If someone digs up “Zungsang” a hundred years from now, what do you hope they hear in it: art, warning, nonsense, or truth?
Joke Lanz: I have no idea. If humanity still exists they might hear some sort of a radio play from the past wondering what it means, hahaha… No, to be honest, I think there’s not much hope left for this world, but if someone digs this up in 2125, they will probably dance to it and consider it as entertainment.
Visit Joke Lanz on the web:
https://jokelanz.bandcamp.com/