Heberto Añez Novoa is a man who wears many hats. The Maracaibo native is a painter, actor, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Venezuelan artist collective Entorno Doméstico with Roberto Jimenez. He’s also a very good musician with an interesting take on indie pop, shoegaze, and electronic music. His solo project, Presidente, has become the darling of the Venezuelan indie press and rightfully so. Listening to his smooth voice and his chill-out vibes makes for great late-night driving music, as is evidenced by his new video for the recently released “Solo.”
The video, directed by Presidente himself, feels like a blast from the past with images that have the look and feel of having been filmed with a Hi8 that’s been reused one too many times. It features a variety of images-–ranging from dancing girls to ice cream cones and fire—layered on top of each other to create a sort of moving Polaroid, where the main subject is a hooded Añez Novoa riding through various cityscapes with the top down. This is all part of the vintage aesthetic and it’s perfectly fitting for the musician’s ’80s synth-pop-and-drum-machine-powered beats.
He’s also brought back the spoken interludes, which add a sense of calm to an already dense track. Both the video and the song are warm and inviting, cold and distant in a perfectly balanced oxymoron. You can download “Solo,” along with Presidente’s discography for free at Entorno Doméstico.
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