Shook

Shook is an independent producer, composer and musician based in The Netherlands. After graduating at the University of the Arts in Rotterdam he released his first electronic solo work. In his own words his work is inspired by "timeless forces such as love, change and art and originates from the 70's, early 80's synth-pop, disco, funk to anime and futuristic soundtracks’.

In 2013 he released his self-titled debut album and later released the synth-pop and jazz funk inspired 'Spectrum' in 2014, from which 'Milestones' was featured in the very first episode of Netflix series 'Better Call Saul'. Remix works were commissioned from him by major artists such as Kimbra, Jamiroquai, Phoenix, Ellie Goulding and many others.

Mid 2016, Shook was diagnosed with Pancreatitis. Because of this, he was in hospital care for over 2 years. He was determined to create music whenever he could. Balancing between life and death and being hospitalized for months, Shook started to appreciate life in all its pure and delicate forms.

Shook says: “When I started to write the new songs, it was a form of therapy for me, to let the music go where I couldn’t go. It was nice to have music as an outlet being very ill and between hospital visits”

The result was his album “Bicycle Ride”. Listening to the album is like watching a Ghibli movie with compositions by Joe Hisaishi. While balancing in the twilight zone between awareness and epiphany you can feel the influences by many artistic and obscure composers and musicians, Shook creates a personal form of electronic music. Creating his own melodies on vintage synths, acoustic pianos and recording drum shots to build his rhythm patterns.

Shook’s music goes back to early electronic music with timeless influences from the likes of Japanese synth pop heroes YMO back to western minimalism such as Erik Satie and modern western musical cultures such as funk and synth-pop.

In 2019, Shook made an exceptional achievement in space. NASA astronaut Christina Koch may have spent 328 consecutive days floating in space (the longest-ever single spaceflight for a woman), but her love for all things audio kept her firmly grounded throughout the journey.
Christina:"When I was living in space, my partner made me playlists as a special way that we could share music and stay connected. One of them had the song Always by Shook, which came to represent how we felt during the years of training away from home and especially the months I was off the planet. I wanted to do something special for my partner for our anniversary, but of course I couldn’t give him anything or even spend time together with him in person. I decided to learn how to play the song Always and perform it for him on a video chat using a keyboard we had on the space station. I am not musically talented, so this was a challenge, but one of my crew mates helped me and I played the song on repeat for weeks while trying to figure out and memorize the notes. When the day came that I played it for him live, we both shed tears and it remains one of the most memorable anthems of my mission. "

Source: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2020-03-23/nasa-astronaut-christina-koch-shares-how-music-and-podcasts-made-groundbreaking-trip-extra-stellar