Name: Tarek Zarroug aka Taroug
Occupation: Producer, drummer, beatmaker, sound engineer
Nationality: Tunisian, Germany-based
Recent release: Taroug's Darts & Kites is slated for release on May 3rd 2024  via Denovali.

If you enjoyed this Taroug interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Soundcloud, and Facebook.



Where did the impulse for Darts & Kites come from? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Darts & Kites is the result of compositions I've written over the past 3 years, particularly during the Corona pandemic. During this time, I let off steam musically and experimented a lot.

The concept for the album is inspired by Penrose tiling, a mathematical arrangement of two shapes (darts & kites), resulting in an aperiodic pattern that never repeats itself exactly the same way. To me, it reflects life in general and the constant changes and developments of circumstances and relationships.

I see myself as one of the forms, always present in its original form in constantly changing patterns, which symbolize the human relationships constantly forming anew throughout life.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

Both happen, but mostly my ideas come from the process of trying things out rather than from a planned concept. I don't want to limit myself when composing and initially allow everything.

Nevertheless, I often have concrete ideas that arise, for example, from collected field recordings or inspired by music or art in general.

I'm curious about the field recordings used for the album. Can you talk a bit about the process of collecting and using them and how you see their function in the finished pieces?

I travel a lot and always have my field recorder with me, collecting everything that sounds appealing to me. Over the years, I've created my own personal sound library, from atmospheric recordings to percussive ones. I often listen through the collection and always find inspiration for new songs.

I have different approaches to integrating the sounds into my music. Breathing life and earthiness into synthetic sounds through layering or using my modular synthesizer to completely deform the samples. Currently, I'm experimenting with percussive recordings of dead stalactites from a cave in Thailand. They have a super beautiful and warm sound.

Others capture their journeys photographically or on video, but for me it's the field recordings in particular that allow me to capture these experiences and record them in my music.

For the recordings for Darts & Kites, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

I often find imperfectionism and emotion in art much more interesting than flawless performance. I may be a trained drummer, but I'm not a multi-instrumentalist and above all I'm not a trained singer.

I find it appealing to experiment with instruments that I can't actually play and to use them in my very own way. Be it a Dan Bau (Vietnam) played with a violin bow or a duduk (Armenia) altered by endless chains of effects. In a way, I am also a collector of instruments from all over the world.

My general way of working is more like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, which I also like to destroy from time to time and put together in a completely new way. Of course I always do my best when I record something, but most of the time stuff will be post-processed or resampled anyway.

Darts & Kites was not a pure solo album, but also involved various collaborators. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great song.

Almost all the musicians on the album have been good friends of mine for many years or come from my direct musical environment. I trust them completely. It's a very personal album, so it was important for me to share this experience with them.

In addition to very clear requests for some parts, I gave them a lot of freedom to contribute. For “Jewels I, “ I actually only wanted Beate Wolff to replace the existing parts with a real cello, but during the recording session she surprised me with super interesting and experimental timbres.

I loved these sounds so much that I also used a lot of the material in other songs on the album.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I don’t think there is a difference. Creativity is a form of self-expression, no matter if it’s coffee-making, gardening or whatever. For me personally, I find joy in making music and while I love a good cup of coffee, I couldn’t express myself in the same way.

I’ve been making music all my life and for some reason I still enjoy it.

I’m more of an introverted person in many situations of life. Making music simply is the best outlet for me personally to process my feelings and express myself. It is deeply rooted in my personality.