ZOUJ is all about finding the soul in synthetic sounds: “I’m trying to make my machines sound human by emulating errors, randomness and tempo ups-and-downs while i’m trying my best as a human to sound like a machine.”

“Anxious Sleep” is the first single from ZOUJ the Leipzig based French / Morrocan / American producer Adam Abdelkader Lenox. After leaving quite the impression in the European underground circuit with his futuristic Noise Pop outfit Lingua Nada (think Black Midi meets Hot Chip) he decided it was time to venture down a different path. The mission? To discover and develop what modern pop music should sound and more importantly feel like. The result is the most genuine, surreal pop music you’ll hear this year. ZOUJ literally sounds like ZOUJ, and yet like so much more.

Adam on the new single: “Since I was a teenager, I've experienced a sleeping disorder known as "sleep paralysis". In some cultures it's thought to be a connection with the dead, being possessed by a demon or thought of as an alien abduction. The symptoms are interesting, and people can experience sleep paralysis sometime in their life for different scientific reasons. Your body is paralysed but your brain is still kind of awake. This results in dark "dreams", the sensation of waking up and feeling your body being paralysed while hearing indescribable voices and sounds. For me, it feels like my subconscious plunged me into a pool where all my demons are swimming, waiting to creep back up once i'm awake. Maybe the undefined voices are reminding us that we have some unfinished business buried somewhere deep in the back of our heads?“
Artist biography from Discogs