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Ouroboros – Captain Hook’s new ambitious project

Ouroboros – Captain Hook’s new ambitious project

It feels that Reshef Harari, known to you as Captain Hook, is always in the lookout for the next challenge, for another innovation. After thoroughly changing his musical direction with his “Origin” album and spearheading vinyl revival in Psytrance, he’s back with his new ambitious project – his new remix-series album ‘Ouroboros’: Past, Present & Future coming out on Iboga Records. We checked with him about the concept of ‘Ouroboros’, the process of creating it, and also touched his special DJing technique.

Listen to Captain Hook – Ouroboros/Present album – while you read!

It’s been a while since we last did an interview – when your last album “Origin” was released. What happened with Captain Hook since then in a few sentences?

Well, it seems like an ocean of time has passed since “Origin”. I got married and became a father of three beautiful boys. We moved out of the city to the countryside. I delve deeper into deep psychedelic trance music creation. Learned more about signal flow techniques in my studio. Released the Space Tube vinyl EP, co-founded the Alien Art project alongside Ace Ventura, released our debut album. And last, but not least imagined the Ouroboros remix album series and together with Iboga Records we made it come to life.

The second chapter in your ambitious project Ouroboros, has just been released. Please explain about the project and the vision behind it?

The album’s concept revolves around ‘Ouroboros’, symbolizing the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth – infinity. The series consists of 3 episodes: Past, Present & Future, with each episode featuring 4 original Captain Hook tracks remixed by 3 artists in different genres, totaling 12 tracks per episode. Each episode is pressed on 3 vinyls, and each vinyl is a style in itself (Psy Trance, Techno, Bass). Our selection of artists was meticulous, each choosing to maximize their connection with a specific Captain’s track. The outcome is a splendid musical mosaic spanning Psy Trance, Techno, and Bass. The artists’ beautiful and authentic expressions, incorporating elements from the original tracks, contribute to the overall richness.

Get Captain Hook – Ouroboros – on vinyl: https://www.diggersfactory.com/bundle/320700/captain-hook-ouroboros-bundle

Can you say a few words about the remixers that took part in “Ouroboros – Present”?

As mentioned above, it’s an eclectic project so we have super talented artists representing each genre. Outsiders, Libra, Burn In Noise & Modus in Psytrance. Dusty Kid, Luis M, John Monkmann & PRZ in techno. Kalya Scintilla, Desert Dwellers and Tribone, Gaudi & Bluetech in Bass.

The whole project is accompanied by special vinyl releases and special visuals – can you elaborate on the reasons for going this way?

As an artist I aim to create a full experience, not only musically but visually and physically as well. IMO it’s all about the experience. People will only remember how you made them feel. The experience is more than music or visuals or vinyls, the experience is the sum of it all. When we started to work on ‘Ouroboros’, we imagined the experience as a whole, that was our vision and this is what we aim to deliver for the fans.

Get Captain Hook – Ouroboros remix album: https://iboga.fanlink.tv/vZGt

Give us a few remixes you really connected to personally and tell us why.

Honestly, I connect to all the remixes, as we worked really hard to get the right artists for each track. Since it’s a wide range of musical styles under the ‘Ouroboros’ umbrella, one can connect to so many different musicians. For me it works in different times as the creation process took around three years, I was able to connect with each remix in its own time. I can sum it all up as a fresh, psychedelic and eclectic musical mosaic.

Your sets are a bit different than what we usually hear in Psytrance – can you explain about your technique as a DJ and how you build your sets?

In long sets, I aim to weave a tapestry of musical layers, blended with a deeply fluid groove. To achieve that I need to play on 4 decks most of the set. Basically I start with one channel, then looping it and mixing to the second, same goes to the third and then the fourth. When all four decks are up and looped – it’s time to upload a new track on the first deck and now it becomes the fifth track of the set, then the second deck as the sixth track, the third deck as the seventh and so on. So we’ve got an endless mix relationship between all four decks and as the set is deepening, it’s being delivered as past, present, future musical chain filtered and twisted into the master output. As I’m not playing with sync, it’s a challenge to deliver all of the above and keep the momentum going. I gotta be fully focused and there’s a point it actually feels like I’m part of the machines – feels like I’m in trance.

Photo by Vinicius Miranda

The cover art for “Ouroboros” is very impressive and very different from your average Psytrance cover, can you tell us about it?

The idea was to create a handmade cover art that will resonate with the concept of Ouroboros, but in traditional Japanese art. We approached the tattoo master DiaoZuo and presented him with the whole project. He immediately agreed to be part of the album and what it stands for – an eclectic piece of art without boundaries that ties together so many different artists in a melting pot. He delivered a mind blowing interpretation of how he sees ‘Ouroboros’ and his meaning of infinity. When all three episodes of the series will be out one can see the whole painting and its powerful msg as one piece.

You have also released an album of Alien Art earlier this year, your project with Ace Ventura – is this a one time thing or will there be more Alien Art?

Yes, we have released our debut album. We’ve been working on it since Covid time actually, and we’re thrilled with the outcome and how it’s accepted by the global psychedelic community. Prior to the album we’ve released three singles and two remix EPs. Our upcoming remix EP with two blasting remixes by Out Of Orbit and GMS is about to come out. On top of that we’re imagining our post album musical vision and about to enter the studio to create it.

Read our Alien Art interview: https://trancentral.tv/2024/06/alien-art-new-album-interview/

One track that really inspires you when we’re talking about Psytrance?

I can name three albums which really inspires me: Hallucinogen – Twisted, Union Jack – There will be no Armageddon and X-Dream – Radio.