With a social media presence that’s equal parts alluring and strange, Berlin-based Mori, aka Europa , has carefully crafted a visual world unequivocally of his own that sits at the intersections of visual art, music, design and performance.
Using nostalgia as a driving force, Europa’s sound plays with contrast, balancing power and emotion, reshaping familiar elements into freer, more intense and almost physical cinematic soundscapes. Think electronic textures that meet introspective songwriting. Yet, this is only a starting point. He lets us into his intimate and expansive world, stories written “taking place in this LA, blue lagoon and Gooniverse utopia”. Over the summer, his glitched, swampy image of LA, or the “LAgoon”, will come to life at festivals in Europe.
There’s not a lot about you out there so I wanted to start by giving you an opportunity to introduce yourself, how would you describe Europa?
Hey everyone. My name is Mori. Europa is I. I live and work in Berlin. I’d describe my approach to music as trying to create something that people know maybe, but not really where it’s from. Sometimes I get a very strong feeling of nostalgia when I think about the future. It’s a round moment that reassures me it’s all about love and we keep coming back to it. It can be just for a second sometimes, but I found these moments to be the engine in my life. I make music because I have found that it amplifies this feeling of futuristic nostalgia. It generates it. I think this is all I want to say here about me. Oh, and I love warm Air and Geography.
Is it an intentional choice to be kind of mysterious and discreet? If so, why?
No, I am not trying to hide. But I am also not trying to go beyond what’s comfortable for me. I have found that more room for interpretation works better for anyone checking out my work, but I don’t calculate it too much.
What’s the backstory behind your name? How about your artistic project?
I mean there is this Greek myth that Europa, a Phoenician princess, got abducted and seduced by Zeus, who transformed himself into a white bull to trick her into jumping on its back. I was always disturbingly amazed or maybe afraid of this story. But I don’t think it was the reason for making this my name. I think I like the sound of it and the fact that it’s some sort of place or concept less than a word for a very specific thing. Obviously, people have very different opinions and perceptions about whatever Europa, Europe in most European languages, is or wants to be. Or should be. That is what I like about the name.
How did you get into music?
I started playing the piano when I was about six years old. Since then, music has always been in my life.
Your first project came out in 2018; how would you describe your journey and evolution? Where are you steering it towards?
I have to say I don’t live inside the world of my older songs at all. I don’t dislike them, it’s just that I am one hundred percent living in the now, when it comes to making music. I think I have understood this better now throughout the last few projects. Before I felt like I was trying more to sound like something that I thought was cool at the time or that had moved me. I don’t do that anymore. And I think no one should do that. It’s stressful and it holds you back. I’m not saying everyone has to invent something new, it’s just that everything will always remind people of something else and no one should try to direct what that will be.
In April of this year, you released your album LAgoon, is the title a play on words?
Yes. I invite everyone to interpret this the way they want. But for me it’s quite a literal and visual way to have both versions of the word create a fictional place that is terribly haunting though beautiful.
Talk to me about the process of making this album and what came out of it.
The title was the first thing that was there. I knew I wanted to name the project like that because I am writing lots of short stories and almost all of them end up taking place in this LA, blue lagoon and Gooniverse utopia. Characters in this world ended up in songs of the album like the little miniature girl with red dancing shoes in the song Visitor that climbs through my window at night, to hide inside of my accordion. The music video of the song Echo Park paints this washed image of a deserted place that looks like LA, but everyone has left and it’s sad but at the same time magical and promising. All these fragments started to add up to this universe that I think all the featured artists very much understood and made into a collection of songs that speak of an exotic urban scenery, full of bots, divas and goons, full of lust and terror and blunt ecstasy to take everything and risk it all for love.
Your music is quite maximalist and weaves in a lot of different textures and elements, where do you draw inspiration from?
Horses, loud speakers, Vicky, my friends, 2010 weed bass, any ocean, tiny pains like sunburn, scuffling, Bill Viola, beatnik writers, G-Unit aesthetic, The Mouldy Peaches, sometimes fashion that my friends make or unintentionally create, weird dreams, kissing, The Caretaker. An empty bliss beyond this world.
How does the songwriting and producing process look for you? Would you say you enjoy the quiet time in the studio more or do you prefer a more dynamic live setting?
I feel the most productive and aligned with my abilities when I’m inside of a train or airplane with good headphones and the world is flying past you right outside of the window. Little pockets. Very tight space and fixed time.
Do you ever see yourself going mainstream? Is that a goal?
I want everyone to listen to my music.
Your project is quite ubiquitous and explores different intersections of the music, performance and art scenes. Do you think not focusing on one single aspect can be a double-edged sword at times? Is there a medium you prefer over the other?
There’s a lot of truth to that. But I have always worked like that, and I could not see myself doing it differently. I could not say if I enjoy making a video or a song more. It’s when both come together and suddenly, you’re standing in front of something that lives only inside of the marriage of the two. I could not work without this special moment. I’m too interested in each part.
What have you been listening to recently?
I’m going to name five songs that have stayed with me over the last month. I don’t want to contextualise it and explain why an artist or song is great. But these five songs did something to me:
MUTSUMI, I Make You Go
aska, i’d rather go blind
Calm Snafu, B.O.R
Deadharrie, Tango
Requisit, I Can’t Move
How has the tour been so far? Any memories or stories you want to share?
For the show in Zagreb I got booked into this hotel which was funnily called Blue Laguna and in the middle of the night, the door to the bathroom fell out of the frame onto my legs on the bed and I screamed really loud because I was crazy scared and very confused about what had happened. Freaky stuff. But then the next day I went to this crazy Bosnian cevapi place and everything was good again.
You played Art Basel recently. How did you prepare for that? How was the experience?
The show was super fun, up in this thirty-first-floor sky bar, very Absolut vodka bottle service. I loved that so much. Other than that, my friends had some really great shows in the week. Chess Club from Hamburg and Hollywood Superstar review from London. Both are doing outstanding art shows and are generally extremely gifted people.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
There is a big album coming up, and I’m working on a longer film that will be incorporated into a new, larger-scale live show. I’m working with some amazing people on the next project. I don’t know what the future will bring but then again, I get nostalgic, and I get so happy that there has been so much love with the last project and that I am able to give music to people. It does so much. It’s everything.
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