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Aspiring

SOKOL: Disconnect to Reconnect

Contact is the ground-breaking project from a unique artist with a universal message – ‘disconnect to reconnect’. And in a world of instant access and information overload, SOKOL has done something truly revolutionary: he's crowd-funded the video for the soundtrack of Contact entirely offline; not even a whiff of the Internet!

Wearing a t-shirt proclaiming, 'Fight the disconnect: Every Dollar Counts!', he took to the streets and individually approached 300 people armed with a piggy bank. Then, fuelled by the kindness of strangers, embarked on a four-day trek to Mongolia’s Altai Mountains to film.

Planes, trains, clapped-out automobiles and more planes were needed to reach this epic and remote location for the Contact video, where SOKOL and his tiny production team lived with a nomadic tribe of eagle hunters. The enigmatic songwriter collaborated with director, Garrick J. Lauterbach, who chose to shoot in a documentary film style to reflect the central ethos of SOKOL’s vision to ‘disconnect to reconnect’. Check out the video below:

But why Mongolia? SOKOL wanted to find a place on this planet so different and unfamiliar to our everyday lives, yet utterly authentic.

"It’s a retour à la nature!" he tells Headliner. "In a fast-paced world like the one we live in, where technology is controlling our lives, it is easy to get out of touch with yourself and everything and everybody around you. I strongly believe that we have to preserve the human elements in meeting face to face, and not get lost in the virtual world."

We have to preserve the human elements in meeting face to face, and not get lost in the virtual world.

The result is soaring, cinematic, spiritual, and honest. More gorgeous than your average perfume commercial, it depicts the majestic existence of the Mongolian eagle hunters (they hunt with the eagles!), one so far removed from Western civilisation that it seems unreal.

"I wanted to make something very, very special; and living with the nomadic tribe in the Mongolian desert was the most authentic and real experience to make this music video," SOKOL adds. "It’s about contact."

A singer, composer, writer, producer, director, and all-round good egg, SOKOL translates to ‘falcon’ in Czech. His studies in sociology and media have also deeply affected his work, and helped create a vision that is universally vital, yet deeply personal.

Contact will be accompanied by what SOKOL calls ‘Contact Notes’, a series of short conceptual videos produced across the globe, each carrying messages of social connection.

He hopes to inspire people to break free and contact with the people, landscape, and cities around them. ‘Disconnect to reconnect’ is a brave, trans-cultural message that sets him apart from your common artist.

The soundtrack for Contact was recorded at Tileyard Studios in London’s King’s Cross, alongside producer Tom Fuller. It is released in the UK on November 11th.

For more on SOKOL, click HERE