Swoop and Cross

Ruben

Bio//

 

I am originally from Portugal and I have been living abroad since 2014. Between 2015-2021 I lived in Cambridge and London, and since I've been based in Trondheim (Norway).

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I started my formal music education at the age of 9. I studied music theory and guitar for 8 years and have since learned a few other instruments.  Nevertheless, I see myself more as a composer and a producer than an instrumentalist. In 2015 I started composing and recording music under the alias Swoop and Cross, and in 2018 I released my first solo album 'Stories of Disintegration', with Time Released Sound. In 2022 I released my second record, entitled 'Les Fauves' with Piano and Coffee Records.

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My music is very much inspired by cinema and literature. In particular my latest album draws a lot from Tarr, Tarkovsky, Angelopoulos, Zvyagintsev, Krasznahorkai, Plath, and Saramago. 

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I also studied medicine and worked as a doctor before moving to Cambridge, where I did a PhD in neuroscience. While my science and music careers are somewhat parallel, I believe they are both driven by a curiosity about myself and about others, which I try to comprehend via these two complementary angles.

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