Photo by Max HeebApsilon is officially back with his second album, GLANZ NULL, and it easily claims its rightful place as our Sound of the Week here at KALTBLUT. Marking a powerful new chapter in his artistic evolution, the record feels simultaneously more personal, more introspective, and every bit as politically sharp as his groundbreaking debut, HAUT WIE PELZ.
At its core, GLANZ NULL searches for a lost sense of childhood wonder—that fundamental, naive belief that the world inherently makes sense—while dissecting the structural fractures that define contemporary existence. The album’s title perfectly encapsulates this emotional tightrope: Glanz (“radiance”) evokes an unbroken, childlike faith, while Null (“zero”) signifies the total loss of that innocence, alongside the exact point from which something raw and new can begin.
Radical Vulnerability: Apsilon Returns with “GLANZ NULL”
@apsilon_21
Photos by @max.heeb
Across fourteen tracks, executive produced once again by Arman Yolci with additional contributions from Bazzazian, Bijan, and Ralph Heidel, Apsilon turns his lens inward. Together, they expand his sonic vocabulary by blending hip-hop with live drums, full-band arrangements, and intricate electronic textures. Influenced as much by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and The Beatles as by modern rap, the production creates a vast landscape for his storytelling.
The lead single and opening track, “Weg hier raus,” immediately sets the tone, introducing a broader musical palette with its central refrain becoming the album’s core motif—embodying hope, defiance, and uncertainty in equal measure. The accompanying visualizer, directed by Nils Hansen, Aysan Lamby, and Arman, translates this internal search into fragmented, apocalyptic imagery.
Another essential pillar of the record is “Sommermärchen,” a devastating narrative ballad that juxtaposes Apsilon’s childhood memories of the 2006 FIFA World Cup with the harrowing reality of the NSU murders. Shaped following a meeting with Gamze Kubaşık in Hanau in 2025, the song reflects on how moments of collective national joy and systemic racial violence have become inextricably linked in the memory of a post-migrant generation.
“What has occupied me over the past two years is this pervasive sense that we’re living through an apocalypse,” Apsilon reflects. “The feeling that so many things are moving in a deeply worrying direction shaped the writing of GLANZ NULL from beginning to end.”
Photo by Max HeebThroughout GLANZ NULL, the relentless pressure to function, measure up, and navigate a world in crisis remains front and centre. But rather than offering neat solutions, Apsilon embraces the complexity and contradictions of the human experience. As he puts it: “These are simply stories, with all their ambiguities.” It is an album about searching, stumbling, and realising that somewhere between the radiance and the absolute zero, there is always space to begin again.
“GLANZ NULL” is out now.
