An idiosyncratic duo composed of visual maestro Zebbler and production mogul Encanti, the Zebbler Encanti Experience (ZEE) effectively transcends the intrinsic dissolution between the audio and visual peripherals of art, combining immersive projection mapping techniques, hand-tailored stage design, and hypnotic psychedelic bass lines aimed to beguile and captivate an audience with an immense flood of creative stimulation.
Birthed through artistic symmetry and inspirational similarities discovered touring alongside EOTO and Shpongle in the late 2000s, ZEE first laid idea to paper with the release of Psychic Projections in 2012, which received a delightful modern revisitation with the preceding release of Altered Projections toward the latter half of 2014 and have more recently released a psytrance odyssey, Id.Entity in June this past year.
Each scrupulously composed project further divulges the unmatched precision at which the duo crafts massive enveloping visual and acoustic soundscapes and the newly anointed Wakaan EP, End Trance falls nowhere short of expectation. Appropriately titled, ‘Outside the Box’ delivers the eccentric perimeter of the EP, exploiting the vacant spaces of the seductive rhythmic marimba beat with sudden lunges of grotty bass, quivers of unremitting subs, and vacillating peaks of convoluted synths.
Merely one strand in the overall fabric, ‘Outside the Box’ weaves ingenious freeform subtleties within a mesmerizing trance-like beat, brilliantly foreshadowing what the project still has yet to reveal.
It was an immense pleasure to catch up with the boundary-defying duo to discuss the complementary relationship between the two and efforts put into play to help achieve a sense of audio and visual synchronicity. Be sure to check out the full End Trance EP and the short Q&A below!
What was the initial spark of inspiration that led to crafting the Zebbler Encanti Experience?
Encanti: Zebbler and I started doing ZEE back in 2008 or so, long before audio/visuals or projection mapping was a common thing. All of our original content was very artsy, so our first shows were all underground warehouse vibes and featured triple-projection formatted music videos, responsive visuals over bangers, and the original ZEE content was mostly weird artsy filler. It took years to make our own original full set of dance music. I like to think we still have an artsy vibe under the bass.
The project itself ingeniously transcends secularity between the auditory and visual components of a live show. How do you work to maintain this sense of balance between the two areas outside of a live setting, for example, in the studio?
Encanti: Much of the project has been our journey towards discovering all the ways we can merge our art forms, and oftentimes the concept comes first; like we will have a track and say “ok let’s try to make a bunch of short videos for this one and trigger each one with an Ableton drum rack while the audio changes the size and brightness”. Sometimes in this process, we discover new tricks on visuals that spawn new musical ideas. To me this is the most exciting part—when crafting the AV performance informs and inspires the production of new content. At the end of the day, it’s just really fun to work together—we don’t have many creative disagreements and are generally stoked about what the other person is working on.
Is there creative exclusivity between the audio and visual aspects of the experience, or ideas passed back and forth freely?
Encanti: We really trust one another’s vision, developing ideas independently most the time until the point we have something to share with the other, and then finish it off getting it “show ready” together. We usually play director for each other’s work; I’d say that I do 90% of the music on my own and the last crucial 10% is based on Zebbler’s feedback, and the inverse is probably true for the visuals. We are good communicators, as long term collaborators must be, so I don’t think there’s any barrier of exclusivity between our thought processes. We have the shared goal of melting your face and brain, and I think we have become each other’s best critics in how to do that most effectively.
How has your integral role with designing projection mapped stages, and visual experiences for notable names such as Shpongle, EOTO, and Infected Mushroom furthered your ability to enhance and refine your own live performances?
Zebbler: Everything feeds back into ZEE—every bit of experience, skill, and money we make get thrown back into this project. I’ve dared myself to be a working artist after graduating from Massachusetts College of Art in 2006 and have mostly succeeded at it, by taking on a great number of gigs for a great number of projects. Every one of these projects is another step at making myself better at my craft, making myself more fluent in the art of visual language and modern technology. Yet most of these projects were for other clients. With ZEE—it doesn’t feel the same. ZEE is passion. ZEE is life. ZEE is the fulcrum of all of my visual synergies—and while I video map the Sol Stage at Envision festival in Costa Rica, I think about how lucky I am to be able to channel everything I learned during these gigs into this personal passion project.
The custom stage set that we tour with is a good example of that—three rear projection screens wrapped around a custom aluminum frame of wings and horns, covered in mapped visuals and outlined in LEDs along with an infinity mirror LED DJ table. The experience with LED work, custom fabrication, networking, MIDI sync, infinity mirrors, 3D animations—all became reinforced from my work with other clients and artists. I am really glad to be able to bring all of these skills back to ZEE—where I can be truly uncensored, unrestrained and motivated to blow minds.
[Photo Courtesy of Tim McGuire]
