The Refuge: Year One

Berlin 2018 and something was happening, yet another artist was looking to find himself, in other words nothing much was happening. Artist known as The Anté Dote was starting a new and different kind of music project called The Refuge. Heartcore, as the genre was named, mixed two types of music not traditionally considered as art, Techno and Hardcore. The high hopes were that marrying these unlikely bed fellows would end up as art or at least artistic.

In the heart of The Refuge was the wish to explore manic depression, also known as bipolar disorder, still a taboo in our society to a certain degree. The aim was to create a safe space where these things could be examined with respect and where all things usually swept under the rug would get an honest look and treatment. The Refuge was a place where the audience and the artists could escape to and together experience something real.

As it often is, big ideas can carry only that much water for us. As Anté was playing his all night sets alone in his rehearsal room and guerilla gigs in the streets of Berlin or experimental concerts in seedy clubs, The Refuge’s focus started to turn inwards on the artist himself. When nobody seemed to be answering his calls, Anté decided to pick up the receiver himself. The project became a one person escape pod as the artist realized that the calls had been coming from inside the house the whole time. Interestingly enough the manic phase never came to play but after a year of searching to find a name for his inner demons and then battling the uncovered depression, Anté was ready to put The Refuge in ice, for the time being it had served it’s purpose.