Electric Universe is a psychedelic trance project from Germany formed by Boris Blenn and Michael Dressler in 1991. [1] Their first EP release, Solar Energy, was an instant hit with the underground trance scene and is often credited with putting the Spirit Zone Recordings label at the forefront of psychedelic trance early on. According to The Sofia Echo , they were "hailed in the 1990s as one of the top psychedelic trance projects to come out of Germany". [1]
The Electric Universe project was founded in 1991 by Boris Blenn and Michael Dressler in Hamburg, Germany. [2] After being inspired by the first big Voov Experience in Sprötze, the first Psy Trance oriented tracks were produced, with just 5 pieces of equipment. These were two synthesizers, one sampler, a mixing desk, and an Atari 1040STE. Some of the tracks found their way into the hands of DJ Antaro, who had just started his record label Spirit Zone. He liked the stuff and decided to release the Electric Universe Solar Energy maxi single as the second release on his label. It turned out to be a big hit and set the ground for the first album, One Love, in 1994. [3]
More and more trance parties were taking place and Electric Universe started to give concerts, at first, mainly in Germany, and then later, all around the globe. In 1997, Dressler decided to leave the project and Boris went on alone. It was the year of the Star Diver album, with the massive track Online Information, [1] that blew the dancefloors everywhere and came to be a blueprint for breakbeat trance. In 1999, Roland Wedig joined Electric Universe and the result of the first cooperation was the track "Meteor" on the Blue Planet album. This kicking track, with its expressive guitar lines was played at many psychedelic parties for over a year. Often during live performances, Electric Universe will be accompanied by their stage guitarist, Roland, who accompanies the band in tracks that feature the electric guitar. [4]
As well as the Electric Universe project, Blenn is successfully working on several side projects such as Jupiter 8000 on Nova Tekk/Liquid Audio and the chill project Galaxy on Blue Room as well as Gabon3 with its first release in the form of the album Source Of Silence in 2003 on Medial Music/Silenzio. Many collaborations have been happening in the last few years with artists such as DJ Sangeet, S.U.N. Project, GMS, and Olli Wisdom (Space Tribe).
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from EBM in Frankfurt, Germany, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and quickly spread throughout Europe.
Psychedelic trance, psytrance, or psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full on, darkpsy, forest, minimal (Zenonesque), hitech psy, progressive, suomi, psy-chill, psycore, psybient, psybreaks, or "adapted" tracks from other music genres. Goa trance preceded psytrance; when digital media became more commonly used psytrance evolved. Goa continues to develop alongside the other genres.
Steve Roach is an American composer and performer of ambient and electronic music, whose recordings are informed by his impressions of environment, perception, flow and space. His work has been influential in the trance and new-age genres.
Infected Mushroom is an Israeli musical duo formed in Haifa in 1996 by producers Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani. They produce and perform psytrance, electronica, dream trance and psychedelic music. They are one of the best-selling groups in Israeli music history in terms of both domestic and international sales.
Avi Shmailov, known by his stage name Astrix, is an Israeli trance music DJ and producer. His specialty lies in the subgenre of progressive psychedelic trance. In 2006, Astrix achieved the 41st position in DJMag's "Top 100 DJs" annual ranking, alongside several other Israeli musicians, with Infected Mushroom ranking the highest at #9. The following year, in 2007, Astrix climbed to the 18th spot on the list, marking a significant representation of the Israeli electronic music scene in the global rankings.,
Etnica is a project originally formed by Carlo Paterno, Max Lanfranconi, Maurizio Begotti, and Andrea Rizzo. They are a very well known Goa trance project from Milan, Italy.
Analog Pussy is a psychedelic trance group that originated in Israel, now located in Germany.
In'R'Voice began his music career in Moscow, Russia. In the late 1980s, he was a fan of the classic industrial bands like Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb. Driven by the innovative sound of industrial music, Kozlov began to experiment with analogue synthesizers. In 1992, he recorded his first tracks on a Studio “Tandem”, which recorded mainly pop musicians, but had very enthusiastic sound engineers. Together they developed the sound of Kozlov's project Inner Resonance Voice. In 1994, In’R’Voice became hugely popular on Moscow's main radio station Maximum and in nightclubs. A year later he received an award for innovations in music from the Ministry of Culture of Russia.
Dimension 5 is a British Goa trance project. Dimension 5 was one of the first Goa trance groups and released vinyl and CDs. The group started in 1989, and around 1994 they released their first early Goa trance recordings, which they described as "space techno". Back then the group existed of four members: Charlie Clarke, Graham Franklin, Kerry Palmer and Nick Wenham. They started their own label, Intastella Records, in 1996 to have total musical freedom.
Eat Static is an electronic music project from Frome, Somerset, England formed in 1989 by Merv Pepler and Joie Hinton. Hinton left the group in February 2008 after 18 years to spend more time with his family.
Spirit Zone Recordings was an independent record label releasing Goa trance, psychedelic trance, progressive trance and ambient music. Founded in 1994 by Wolfgang Ahrens, the label has been defunct since July 2005.
Oliver John Wisdom was a British Goa and psy trance musician, and clothing producer, who lived in London. From the 1990s he recorded under the name Space Tribe.
Silence is a Slovene electronic, synthpop and soundtrack music composing duo consisting of Boris Benko and Primož Hladnik. Their fanbase and their tours are currently limited to Slovenia, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe. Outside the region, the band is probably mostly known for the album Vain, A Tribute To A Ghost and their collaboration with Laibach on the album Volk in 2006.
Vibe Tribe was the music project of Russian-born Israeli former music producer Stas Marnyanski and (formerly) Elmar Ivatarov.
Entheogenic is a musical project consisting of Piers Oak-Rhind and Helmut Glavar that crosses musical style boundaries. Since the early 1980s, the Austrian musician and songwriter Helmut Glavar has founded a variety of bands, ranging from punk and funk to new wave and drums-and-bass. Piers Oak-Rhind was born in England and has been a sound designer, programmer and musician since the early 1990s. He studied guitar at the London School of Guitar. According to the two members, the music mixes "coloristic electrophonics" with "impressionistic orchestra-like sound".
John Fleming is an English trance producer and DJ from Worthing, West Sussex. He has had releases on record labels such as Ministry of Sound, Deconstruction Records, Logic Records, and 3 Beat Music. He also owns and runs Joof Recordings. He has performed at many clubs including Cream, Gatecrasher, Ministry of Sound, and Godskitchen.
Andrei Oliver Braşovean aka ATMA is a Romanian composer, performer and electronic music producer.
Torsten Stenzel is a German music producer and composer. Classically trained from an early age his roots are within the field of Electronic Dance Music. His interest for music first started at age five when he received piano lessons by academic piano teacher Andre Terebesi.
KIWA aka Markku Louhio, is an electronic music producer and musician from Finland. Originally a duo, KIWA also included Matti Elsinen as a member until 2016. Since then Markku has continued the project as a solo artist.
Avatar Records is a Tel Aviv-based independent record label and digital distributor specializing in electronic music, providing music to online retailers including Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify and Beatport. The company was founded by Avichay Avigal and Peter Eibenschutz in 1997. The label initially had an alliance with NMC Music, when it first started as its subsidiary. Later, Avatar was in collaboration with BNE, before finally becoming a fully independent label.