Die ek is an original, Afrikaans progressive rock band from South Africa. Utilizing music, video, and poetry, they create a liminal space in which doors to new cognitive dimensions can be found and opened. In the maze of life, we sometimes get trapped, both within and without. Dreams can provide metaphoric solutions to navigate the difficult path to integrate what happens in the conscious world. To see the dreams that we have had so far, visit the music videos page or Die ek Youtube Channel.
Early Days
Die ek was founded in 2016 by Riaan le Roux. The initial idea was that the music and lyrics would provide a means to explore identity in a world that has become over saturated with explanations and theories. This later evolved into the idea that the music and videos could be represented as dreams and used as a vehicle to explore complex problems metaphorically.
Have you ever woken up on the wrong side of the bed and started your day on the wrong foot with the wrong feeling in your heart? You might even have felt like this for years. It might be so incontrovertibly connected to your sense of self that you believe that this is the way things should be. Your dream might show you that there is another world, a place where everything flows. Where you can appear in places that you long for or desire to be. You might even fly up into space. The doors to this place are hard to find on your own, but with the help of some good friends and teachers these doors can become more visible. This first dream was produced by Die ek.
After launching the video online the band played a show at the Jarr Barr in Pretoria. Susan and Heleen van Tonder [Tiger and Lilly Productions] came to see that show. They produced the second dream - Fokijuk
The band was set to start shooting Fokijuk in March of 2020. Just as the first lockdowns started. Riaan: "Funny how the line between dreams and reality can be blurred... maybe because there is no line..." The theme of the song deals with the apocalypse of the mind". The destruction of old structures and the rebirth into the new. 'Synchronicity' he says, is a beautiful reminder that I am doing the thing that was destined for me...'
space
The third dream is the title track - 'Die ek'. This dream communicates the origin story of die ek. The battle between the opposites, and the journey to integrate them. Carl Jung the Swiss psychiatrist calls this process individuation. The two opposites are played by Riaan and his brother Allan le Roux. (This video was again a Die ek production even though Heleen was behind the camera. It was edited and directed by Riaan.)
For the last couple of months, since the release of the title track. Die ek has been working on music and a video for Dapper Huis. The next dream in the series.
(This was a Die ek production.)
To be a child is to be vulnerable… When I was young I used to stare into a dark corner in my room as I was falling asleep. I had the feeling that there was something there in the darkness. Hiding. Waiting for me to fall asleep. My dreams would take me to the most hellishly terrifying places. I woke soaked in sweat, overwhelmed by fear. I would hold my breath and listen. I would switch on the light to see that there is nothing there. I would turn my back on the dark corner and tell myself that there was nothing there. That it was all just in my mind. The courage to look into the darkness for longer, came much later in my life, but the scares of being so utterly uncourageous still linger somewhere in the depths of my psyche. It is still staring at me from that dark corner waiting… waiting for me to fall asleep. -Riaan le Roux-
