MAIDOUAN – Music Video Single
From the album ANTIROMA. Osa Mayor Studios, Gothenburg - Sweden.

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(Dj Kushe on Bandcamp & Spotify)

My decision to frame this release in a traditional format—while simultaneously problematizing predetermined roles, schedules, and the relationship between the venue and the public—is deeply inspired by my aesthetic research: the search for authenticity in the public space.

The music is minimalist electronic with a defined nightclub character, a style I call “Roots Elektronik”: eclectic, featuring samples arranged in new sequences. I accompanied this with a visual narrative mixing open-source material from Google with my own photos and images from professionals who have documented my performative work. These images were intertwined in a random sequence, providing a parallel dramaturgy that strengthened the metaphorical discourse of the composition. I decided that the photographs would drive the political discourse—the ideology from which I activate my performative work.

The album’s title is anchored in this aesthetic and political stance. My motivation to intervene in public spaces is framed within site-specificity and is closely tied to the political. The venue, “Café Jesusbaren” (Jesus Bar), evoked the idea of Rome—the empire responsible for Jesus’ death. This serves as a critique against the current proto-fascist government in Italy and its anti-rave laws, and by extension, against the current Swedish government, which was one of the first to officially salute that democratic aberration in Italy.

Present at the venue was the mother of my youngest son, curious about my musical work, alongside my two-year-old, who was interested in absolutely everything.

Just as we were ready to start, the little one began to cry, undoubtedly complicating the intervention. Seeing that his mother couldn’t soothe him either, I was forced to shift my role from DJ to father. In a purely intuitive act, I decided to incorporate him into the experience of steering and controlling the release, teaching him when and how to mix. The risks were high: a digital mixer on an iPad screen, an activity we had never done together, the public debut of my DJ alter ego, and a musical composition not exactly designed for infants—all happening at a time that wasn’t typical for a nightclub. I simply trusted.

He showed incredible disposition and respect for what we were doing, listening carefully to my instructions and performing his assigned tasks. The atmosphere remained harmonious and creative. I had to accept dispensing with the playful complexity of effects, synchronicity, and aural juxtapositions; the musical sequence became simpler and cleaner. Some children in the audience even felt motivated enough to start dancing to the sound of my Roots Elektronik.

By the end, the café clientele—now transformed into an audience—applauded warmly. I received positive feedback regarding the music and the way the “problem of roles” was resolved, leading to invitations to the alternative electronic scenes in Hamburg and Berlin. The album was born, and with it the possibility of new spaces. Although none will be the same as the origin, I hope to maintain this authentic creative flow.

Thanks so much to Victor Eldar Inti García-Myrberg and Alejandro for permitting my intervention, and of course to Ronnie Fuentes for this wonderful picture!

(Dj Kushe on Bandcamp & Spotify)

Un Altar para Medusa ©PAIAP/©HGJ/©LottaLund

A site specificity installation and intervention at Poseidon sculpture,

Götaplatsen. Gothenburg. 2018

Canto al Río, acontecer, site specific intervention; Puente Recoleta, V International Biennial Deformes Santiago Chile 2014