nullweld – munter

The mauritanian railway is primarily used for transporting iron from the mines in Zouérat to the coastal city Nouadhibou. It serves as one of the main income sources of Mauritania, selling the iron to various (also western) countries. The trains route goes almost nonstop through the sahara desert, also through the night. Although it is not designed for passenger transportation and lacks certain comforts, locals often hop on as a free form of hitchhiking.

Me and my friend Paul took this route too. Our plan was to board in Choum, a small village in the desert. The train typically stops there for about 10 minutes to load additional cargo. We arrived in the afternoon, knowing that the train’s schedule is not strict, and it arrives whenever. All we could do then was to wait it out. In our case, it finally arrived at 1 am.

After jumping on and luckily catching an empty vessel, 14 hours of dry sun and roaring railway noises followed. Me and Paul took the train to make our way to the Western Sahara border. Our travel companion was on his way to work in Nouadhibou. However, the noise was so loud that conversation was difficult, leaving each of us to endure the conditions mostly on our own.

All of this left a great impression on me. Being deprived of the usual ongoing stimuli, except in this case these harsh train noises for hours. Quite meditative and with a lot of room for thought.

Anyways, I felt like documenting this and wanted to share the serenity we had in us, or at least I did. It goes along with the beat „munter“ inspired by the event.

Everything you see is barely edited footage and mostly straight from my camcorder.

listen to the ep

qus – unterwegs

video & instrumental production by moi

uaigl – kanu

concept by uaigl & moi

direction/camera/edit: moi
graphics/colors: lukas linden

soysalva – luuz my life

production: liquice

director/editor: gordian schrödter
dop: conrad lexow
light/title design: lukas linden
executive producer: nicholas agardy
local producer: maxime miribel

khey – serum

production: liquice

director/editor: gordian schrödter
dop: conrad lexow
head of production: hannah dietrich
executive producer: nicholas agardy

sixrose – saxe hélère

director / camera / edit: gordian schrödter
lighting assistance by maxence rivoire & thomas saminada