Tag: Don Gog

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Stockholm’s Don Gog Shares Hazy and Menacing “Q”

Don Gog is a mysterious and enigmatic Stockholm-based DJ and producer, who spent a handful of years between the late 90s and early 2000s heavily involved in Gothenburg‘s hip-hop scene, working as a DJ and producer, who worked with an array of Swedish, French and American emcees, including Jeru the Damaja, Looptroop Rockers and Astma, who’s best known for his work with NoNoNo. He has also worked on TV and film scores, winning a number of international film festival awards throughout the course of his lengthy career.

The mysterious Stockholm-based DJ and producer finally steps out into the spotlight as a solo, hip-hop and electronic music artist with the forthcoming Cybernetics EP, which sees the Swedish artist and producer crating music that blends an eclectic array of influences, including Massive Attack, Portishead Aphex Twin and others, paired with visuals to create a trippy multimedia experience. By purposefully keeping the artist behind the project as ambiguous as humanly possible, the idea is that listeners and viewers can focus more on the art, as opposed to the person behind it.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “I Feel Love,” a narcoleptic and trippy fusion of dub and trip hop built around rubbery, tweeter and woofer rattling low end, staccato and percussive synths and skittering beats while Uma E’s sultry vocal sample singing “I Feel Love” bursts out of the haze. “I wanted it to feel like a trip, a journey in your head,” Don Gog explained. “To mix electronica with dub and blend the two styles… the complicated thing was to find the electronica melody that would work with the dub beats… It was challenging to blend two diverse elements into a single cohesion.”

Cybernetics EP‘s latest single, “Q” continues a run of narcoleptic and hazy, dub-inspired trip-hop that features a soulful jazz trumpet solo paired with reverb-soaked beats, atmospheric and fluttering synths and a gently vocodered vocal. The result is a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Massive Attack record — but with an added sense of uneasy, creeping menace. “I worked with a jazz trumpet player who improvised and then took different bits and ‘sampled’ them and created new melodies and recorded them to tape and then back to the MPC3000,” the mysterious Swedish producer explains. “And from that into the DAW again, to edit it even more.”

Directed by high fashion photographer and videographer Fofo Altinell, the hazy accompanying video for “Q” is inspired by 90s underground art and the work of directors like Chris Cunningham and David Lynch. “The visual inspiration is coming from disassociation,” Altinell explains. “Our protagonist is clearly confused, maybe traumatized or intoxicated, walking the rough streets and suddenly the daydreamy glitter comes and she’s mentally somewhere else. The things happening in her head is our fictional protagonist’s personal dreams and fears”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Uma E. Shares an Atmospheric Cover of 80s Synth Pop Hit

Ulriqa Fernqvist is a Swedish multi-disciplinary artist, who strongest forms of expression have always been dance, theater and singing. Over the course of two-plus decade career, she has worked on an experimental, improvisational concerts, musical installations, theater and dance performances. Along with producer and collaborator Don Gog, she runs the performing arts company Art of Spectra, a company that has been invited to perform at numerous festivals, theaters and art centers around Europe.

As a pop artist, Fernqvist is the creative mastermind behind solo recording project Uma E. Her latest single, sees Fernqvist and her longtime producer and collaborator tackling a-ha‘s 1985 song “The Sun Always Shines On TV.” The original begins with a dramatic introduction featuring twinkling keys and atmospheric synths before quickly morphing into a hook-driven, prog rock-like anthem reminiscent of Yes‘ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and Duran Duran. Clocking in at a little under six minutes, the Uma E. rendition sees the Swedish collaborators stripping the song down to the bare bones, transforming the song into a brooding and uneasy, Portishead and Massive Attack-like bit of trip hop built around thumping kick drum beats, gently twinkling synth arpeggios, grainy bass synths and atmospheric electronics paired with Uma E.’s ethereal and plaintive delivery.

“I worked in the theatre play TOUCH by Falk Richter in Germany at Münchner Kammerspiele during the pandemic. I was asked to perform the A-ha song, ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’ and it started off quite close to the original,” Fernqvist says. “I realised after a while I wanted to express the song in a different way to make it feel right. I got very attached to this song and the lyrics as it was a song I heard a lot growing up. I felt that I wanted to express it more like a poem – slower and more intimate.” 

Changing the style of the song was planted in the Swedish artist’s mind, and came to fruition later that summer, when she returned to Sweden. “Me and my producer Don Gog started to experiment with what that change  could be. It developed to what we came to call ‘a techno prayer’ and we started building this track with the idea that it was to be performed in this play. Later we reworked that version to make it more like a track without the theatrical context – even though those memories still live in the track. The challenging thing with the vocals was to keep it very fragile and honest even if we wanted the music to have this constant rise. It was also very interesting to blend the electronica with elements from techno. 

Directed by Fofo Altinell, the accompanying video for “The Sun Always Shines On TV” is a hazy fever dream, following the Swedish artist in the countryside during golden hour.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Don Gog Shares Narcoleptic Yet Sultry “I Feel”

Don Gog is a mysterious and enigmatic Stockholm-based DJ and producer, who spent a handful of years between the late 90s and early 2000s heavily involved in Gothenburg‘s hip-hop scene, working as a DJ and producer, who worked with an array of Swedish, French and American emcees, including Jeru the Damaja, Looptroop Rockers and Astma, who’s best known for his work with NoNoNo. The mysterious Swedish producer and DJ has also worked on TV and film scores, winning a number of intentional film festival awards throughout his lengthy career.

Don Gog steps out into the spotlight as a hip-hop and electronica artist with their forthcoming EP Cybernetics, which sees the Swedish artist and producer focusing on blending music inspired by Massive Attack, Portishead Aphex Twin and others, and visuals together in a trippy fusion. By keeping the artist behind the project ambiguous, the idea is that listeners and viewers can focus more on the art, as opposed to the person behind it.

Cybernetics EP‘s latest single “I Feel Love” is narcoleptic and trippy fusion of dub and trip hop built around rubbery, tweeter and woofer rattling low end, staccato and percussive synths and skittering beats. Uma E’s sultry vocal sample singing “I Feel Love” bursts out of the haze.

“I wanted it to feel like a trip, a journey in your head,” Den Gog explains. “To mix electronica with dub and blend the two styles… the complicated thing was to find the electronica melody that would work with the dub beats… It was challenging to blend two diverse elements into a single cohesion.”

Directed by high fashion photographer and videographer Fofo Altinell, the accompanying video follows a woman painted in silver wandering through and exploring different natural environments, but its intentionally shot and edited in a way to make the viewer feel as though they were tripping while viewing it, thanks to kaleidoscopic effects and tricks of the light.