The curios world of Shoeg

By Audio Pervert - 10/26/2017




















Shoeg
is an audio-visual artist based in Barcelona. A very curious blend of video, landscape art and ambient sound, that is alluring as well as unsettling. Visibly inspired by video-game imagery and 3-dimensional fractals set inside imaginary landscapes, painted with ambient, melodic down tempo music. A far-cry from the often one dimensional 4/4 world of hard boiled EDM. Very reminiscent of Boards of Canada as well as harboring on Autechre, Aphex, Miracalix and such modal left-field forms of electronica. The narrative remains hidden as Shoeg weaves his video montages interplayed occasionally by humanoid characters in serene yet cold environments or even building abstract fractal growth. Listening and watching, one feeds off a truly rare and unsettling voyage into previously unrelated if not uncharted vistas. Deconstructing ambient music and abstract imagery can often become a jargon based drill, which often amounts to nothing useful. One can only assume so much or ask the artist as to what is the source of their inspiration or even the outcome of their efforts.

What is ShoeG? (does it have any connection to Shoe-Gazer genre?)

Actually, is 'Shoeg' {show-egh in english} Often I've heard people saying it like 'sho-egg' or 'shu-ji' but I don't care. It comes from this Padna song  - lovely album, by the way. Usually I'm very bad at naming projects, so I have used the homage/tribute technique ( Try it ). I did not care about no specific genre. It would be set upon creating collages, with many juxtapositions, and a sense of experimentation. I believe in mutation and layers, and a state of change which defines the music.

Your background? Before you became an artist?

My father had a synth pop band in the 80s. At home, we had a Yamaha DX7 and Roland D50 synth with an Atari running Cubase 1.0. When I was about 3, fiddling around with the gadgets I felt instantly amazed and connected with sounds. Would be a decade plus later that I got my first computer, a Pentium I ! Primarily I started busting out midi-files like a maniac. Yet sometimes life can be cruel and I had to stop making music around the age of 19. Fortunately, the music bug remained in my brain all this time, and thanks to Ensemble Topogràfic which happened four years ago, I felt confidence, enough to restart my journey into music again.

I've been influenced by diverse forms of music and musicians since childhood. I avoid genres as they get long and cumbersome. Yet from industrial and noise to experimental electronic sound to even Finnish prog-rock to certain 80s fusion jazz, some of what I love, which somehow reflects in my work. A blend of my experiences and the music i've been inspired by.



There seems a deep yet clear connection between your surreal abstract video art 
and the ambient nature of your music? Tell us more, How do you construct it and why?

These videos are my primary works as Shoeg. Before that, I have worked with Ana Drucker (www.anadrucker.net).  That approach involved more organic media as live video-sets for Tanz and Panorama. Yet while producing Vaseline, I felt I needed to alter the imagery radically. Circa 2015, things would start to take shape towards a new direction. I have a gamer past, and I wanted to use those tools to create a new malleable reality. Taking real world elements (maps, 3D scanned objects, characters etc) I started experimenting with Unity, and arrived at some pretty interesting landscapes. After experimenting with video, I have been working on a reactive audio-visual set for live concerts. Check out my bizarre world here http://www.shoeg.net/


Your previous release was titled Vaseline, What about the new one?
It has no name as of now. Yet, I am most excited about it. At some point before the year ends I hope, a new EP will see the light via the Sweat Taste label.



Shoeg is performing at the upcoming Mira Festival along-with some very interesting artists in the field of ambient, IDM and techno music such as James Holden, William Basinski and μZIQ. Mira festival, based in Barcelona, is showcasing one of the most exciting blend of artists this year.



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