Wolfgang Tillmans took Frank Ocean to Berghain
The story of how his techno track was placed on 'Endless'
Yesterday in the late hours of the evening, Frank Ocean surprised the world with the release of an unexpected visual album titled 'Endless', which streamed from his 'Boys Don't Cry' website and is now available on iTunes.
The typically sultry, R&B-leaning artist made yet another unexpected move towards the end of his 45-minute album with the inclusion of a techno-tipped track which closed out the last seven minutes of 'Endless'.
As it turns out, the inspiration arrives from renowned German artist Wolfgang Tillmans, who also releases musical outputs under his own name and as part of a group called Fragile.
In an Instagram post, Tillmans revealed that his unreleased track 'Device Control' was incorporated into the opening track and played out in full as the closing for Ocean's 'Endless'.
"Three weeks ago I showed him a few songs, which I had written and produced for myself earlier in the year," Tillmans shares in the post. "He replied, 'Device Control is brilliant. Love. Can I sample it for the intro of my album?’ I agreed to it, and to my excited surprise this morning he didn't just sample it. He released my complete original track as the end of this amazing album."
In an interview with Pitchfork, Wolfgang explained that he came to meet with Frank originally for a photograph which he wanted to use for the upcoming album, and instead became interested in Tillmans' music.
After a defeating back and forth of cancelled London meet ups, Tillmans "gave up" and told Ocean he was heading to Berlin for a few days. Frank Ocean told Tillmans that he wanted to meet there instead and drove 12 hours to meet the artist in Germany.
Upon meeting in Berlin, Tillmans shared that Frank Ocean had asked about going to Berghain, but unfortunately, it was closed that day. Ocean, undeterred, came back to the city two days later solely to head to Berghain with Tillmans, which they did.
Wolfgang Tillmans will digitally release his own 'Device Control' EP with the track in question on August 20.
Frank Ocean's full audio album is expected to arrive sometime this weekend, though it's said that the LP will no longer be titled 'Boys Don't Cry'. Stay tuned!