Welcome to the colorfully dynamic world of Slon. Find out all you need to know about the debut of the new video “filefragile” coming November 29th 2021, as we talk and discuss the new exciting persona of Slon, and the abstract world that is expertly sculpted with sound and visuals.

How does it feel to share your debut EP Majestic Mind Safari Show?

I guess pushing out the release is always a bit the same, a mix of relief, excitement, some maybes, and a lot of fire, dope, gas. It’s been a while since I composed this work and I’m currently already working on something new in the meantime, so personally I’m ready to release new things, and luckily some of it will end up in a documentary I’m currently creating the soundtrack for.

How did the concept of Slon begin?

The main idea was to create a character who could see the world in his own way, without preconceptions, as if he was an external visitor, fallen into the here and now. For this, we tried to create a suspended atmosphere, which is reflected from the tracks to the video.

Working on the project with filmmaker Marco Proserpio (@marcoproserpio_) gave this process a boost. He’s a master in freestyle movie making. We wrote this kind of futuristic italo poliziesco short film concept together, which was supported by the artist and pro skater Mattia Turco (@mattiaturco) and THE GLUTS’ (@thegluts) frontman Nicolò J. Campana (as the bad guys) on the set. Big up also to the great sfx specialist Carlotta Lamendola (@carlotta_lamendola) , who shaped Slon’s unique greensmile. It was a hardcore freestyle dream team that helped shape a curious and clumsy figure experiencing the world he inhabits for the very first time.

Having a debut during a global pandemic must have been bizarre, how has this influenced your work?

«Wearing a mask is no longer a matter of culture, lifestyle, religion or socialization. Now that screens have become windows, and fear is used to entertain, what’s the real difference between person and persona?» - this is a qoute I use in the context of the release. From today’s perspective it's weird because when we first started working on the video and the prosthetic process, which led to the final mask, the pandemic wasn't even vaguely in the air. In addition to the strange coincidence, the various lockdowns have certainly slowed down the process at every stage. This sort of stretch really increased a general sense of suspension, as if the world had momentarily paused. On the one hand, this allowed me to immerse myself into the world of Slon in a much more widespread way. And as he says, the more I understand humans, the more I feel plants.

Do you think we take in media and art differently now our lives are over saturated with screens?

Well, I'm not apocalyptic and I don't mean to criticize the way we live in favor of a nostalgic past, but surely our approach has changed. The speed and the intensity of visual messages has increased a lot in the last couple of years, and so has the way in which we process these stimuli.

Not only that, I am almost certain that also the way in which the content is created has also changed in order to meet new needs. Have you seen poor Cigsboy? The load of stress to which he is subjected by the current state of the world? Not everyone is made to run, he can't do it and would like to quit smoking to align himself with this new super-healthy society, but all the pressure stresses him out and so, to relax, he sparks one.

Slon feels so refreshing and is like nothing I have witnessed before, do you think we are craving newness in our postmodern world?

Well first of all thank you, I really appreciate that. I believe that the general tendency to push yourself towards newness is natural, but after the recent lockdowns there is a heightened desire to return to wonder, to discover. Actually, we are perhaps in the midst of this tension: on the one hand we are wanting to return to a life full of exchange, encounters, exhibitions, clubbing and discoveries, on the other hand, we are experiencing a strange sensation when the mask falls and we have to hug, meet.

My analyst, Dr. CoolDaSuck says I should "sloth down", but the race for the new is unstoppable. In my opinion, the problem is not the running, but what you leave behind you as you run.

The soundscape created is so submerging and hypnotic, it sounds multilayered, how is this created? How do layers come into play with the concept?

It all started by locking myself in the studio with some new tools. I thought about how little I was interested in working in the same way I have in the past years. So I made a rule for myself: I wanted to compose one layer after another, continuously muting the previous recordings, all to the same click. Once this 'blind' procedure is completed, all of the layers are combined. This helped me not to repeat patterns and work in a completely “blank way”. This approach is one rooted in duality - fragility and rigidity, fluidity and limitation – a zone where balance tilts and a new equilibrium is found.

This eventually triggered the idea of Slon: an anti-heroic persona having no personal background and moving through a hyperreal world of perpetual transition and unpredictability in order to observe from the perspective of an outsider, starting from scratch and, like in this compositional process, accumulate layers, collected in an unconditional way.

What genres have you brought together to create such a unique sound? Like I said before the soundscape is hypnotic, I feel transported, is this intentional? If so, where do you want us to be transported to?

Well, welcome to Slon’s Majestic Mind Safari Show, take a seat and make yourself comfortable as you pour yourself a gin and tonic ;)

What creatures will we see during the safari? I have no idea. I know I can rely on a very large memory and have voraciously swallowed anything that caught my attention from day one (and my birth came almost three months early). From then on, every bit has found a place to stay, whether it was field recordings, ringtones, video games, MTV, the listening routine of my parents, popular songs of my noisy Mediterranean family, squat, private clubs, cityscape. Everything is valid and belongs together. My debut documents this journey, and I'm really very glad you're enjoying it. It reminds me the one of Claire and Trevor McPhee's in the movie Until the End of the World by Wim Wenders. Are you up for it?