[These articles were rebuilt on the same layout as Freeze Magazine issue 65, December 2008, using the original English texts.] interView SunTrip The Melody is Back In it's 5 years of exis tence, Suntrip released more tha n 10 cds. It all started with the debut album of the Greek artist RA at the "Filteria" (Jannis tzikas) in November 2004, called Sky Heron Festival, Input , which took the psytrance world by surprise Belgium, because of the insane climaxes and the maximal melodies all over the place, not for the faint hearted! In June 2008 June 2005, the second release was a compilation called Apsara . This cd was a mixture of famous melodic Goa Trance producers and new talents who mostly became more known afterwards. The compilation clearly concentrates on typical morning Goa trance although Aes Dana's track is more dreamy progressive/downtempo. Unfortunately this cd is now completely sold out. October 2005 saw the debu t of Khetzal, a French artist known from numerous releases on labels as Ultimae en Kagdila. He gave us a great mixture of downtempo and uptempo spiritual and floating Melodic Goa Trance. A must have for people that are in love with eastern melodies! Then, Filteria was ready again with another mind blowing piece of uplifting psychedelic music. His second album, Heliopolis , was released in the winter of 2006. After that we had proof Suntrip isn't only about positive melodic music: veteran Ka-Sol released his Fairytale album on Suntrip in April 2006. A perfect mix between melodic, dark and twisted soundscapes ; harder but dancefloor friendly, described as "Forest Trance". sounds combined with classic emotional Goa trance make true Goa Trance anno 2008. Fantastic melodies and crazy acid sounds. A cd that people production, superb melodies, floating and For demos, licensing, January 2007 brought the more typical "Suntrip" who are more into modern melodic music will like for dreamy atmospheres and a real storytelling sure! live -acts and DJ-sets: compilation Twist Dreams . A mixture betwee n famous album ranging from true dance floor inferno artists like Ra, T alpa and material till soft ambient. Khetzal and less famous Goa Trance artsists like Afgin Not long ago, in March 2008, a special double cd Suntrip Records, th and Cosmic Silence. Just like Apsara, this compilation was released to cele brate our 10 cd. Cd 1 existed And just at the moment this article is published, Lintsesteenweg 38 is sold out as well. out of uptempo Goa Trance and cd 2 was an our latest compilation called Sundrops will be 2500 Lier Ambient and Downtempo experience. Both cds Belgium featured the most talented artists within the scene… released. This the deepest morn ing trance In june 2007 Dimension 5's classic Trans dimensional (originally released in 1997) was remastered & re - Shakta, Solar Fields, Electrypnose, Asura, Filteria, compilation we ever released. Expect nothing www.suntriprecords.com released, and even today it still blows away the dance Aes Dana, Ethereal... less than pure emotional sunrise tracks! floors! Spiralling uptempo super psychedelic [email protected] masterpieces! Before the summer of 2008 another album was [email protected] released: the delayed release of Ra called 9 th . Here +32(0)495 162012 In November 2007 the long awaited debut solo album of one of the old masters (ex -member of Dimension 5, the Serbian artist Goasia saw the daylight. Up to date Hunab Ku, Electron Wave) showed what it means to How did you decide to start SUNTRIP? Jos alone: I am playing this kind of Goa trance for Suntrip: Actually our idea of starting a label is about 8 years now, and last 6 years I have played something dating from the early years of the new almost every weekend in Belgium or the surrounding millennium. We (Joske – Anoebis and Fabien – Mars) countries. Unfortunately my job doesn’t allow me to knew each other already since 2000. Fabien helped the play much abroad, but I don’t really care as the creator of the famous goa-review site www.psynews.org Belgian crowd is the best you can imagine… And starting the site, and I was one of the guys helping them financially? This is a nice extra, but once again, not since the beginning. One of he problems of the scene even close to live from it… around that time was that our beloved music – melodic “old school” Goa trance – was almost dead, Full On Do you believe that you are the wake up label for started to rise and minimal music had its huge boom. the new era of Psy Goa trance ? That’s why we started talking about making a label; to Jos: Well, it seems that there always was a market release that blissful music we loved so much instead of for people that love the melodic Goa trance in the following the hype of the moment. When Fabien old style, but of course, someone needed to act first discovered a Greek/Swedish artist called Filteria and it seems like it was us. Does this make us the (Jannis Tzikas) we thought we’d found “the” man, and wake up label for the new wave? Yes and no I think, were ready to start. In the summer of 2004 we did all Yes because we did the first step, but no because the paperwork and in November the first Filteria-album without the artists there would have been no called Sky Input was released. releases whatsoever and also the internet helped us a lot. So the rise of “new style” Goa trance is more a So Goa melodic sound is your thing , how did that community kind of thing then just the work of one came and how did you make it a business? Does label. Suntrip live from music production? And how about Fabien: Oh well, Kagdila released some Goa trance DJing and all that comes around having a record after the style became, “out of fashion”, and before label? us. But they’re in the US, and Psytrance’s main The reason why we started to realize melodic Goa audience is in Europe. To answer your question, the trance is, as we said above, simply because our more I think about it, the more I believe we were at beloved music was not getting released anymore… And the right place -when people needed more variety-, then there are 2 things you can do: sit and complain at the right moment –when party people belonged to as much good music then before. Of course not tried to pick tracks from all our cds so people can about that fact, or act… And we chose the second 2 generations-, and most importantly, with the right only within “our niche” but that doesn’t have to, see not all our music is the same. Also note there option. artists! as long as the music is good we are happy are 2 Greek artists on the cd, we thought the Lots of people think the label is our job, but with the Beyond that, we can’t do much alone, in the middle anyway. readers of Freeze would appreciate that. The cd modern crisis in the music industry there is no way we of a sea of mainstream music. But there are other Jos: I loves most of all “modern” subgenres: was mixed by DJ Anoebis (with CDJ100’s, no could even closely live from it. So we both have a Goa trance labels coming up: Cronomi, DAT, Suomi because it is fresh and original, forest computer stuff) because we believe it is easier to “normal” daytime job (Joske as a high school teacher, Phototropic... Together we shall really show a clear trance (not too fast Swedish dark) because it’s feel the trance in a continuous journey… Anyway, Fabien as an IT engineer) and in the evenings and direction and wake up something. mystical atmosphere and its psychedelism, the idea behind the cd: we started with the nights we try to run Suntrip as good as possible. The melodic progressive for during summer days Avigmati track to have a magical and eastern intro label takes of course a lot of time, but we all do it for fun What’s your opinion about the psy trance of (as long as it doesn’t become too housy) but that can guide us into madness, Red Gravity and and for the music. Also the fact that the label is not today…the full on …the dark psy trance and all the type of music I like the most besides real Dimension 5 are clearly a showcase of acidic mad something we need to survive financially is good that? Goa trance must be psychedelic Ambient. We Goa trance with loads of melodies flying allover the because we manage to keep the quality high like that. We have a little different opinions about that, but in already showcased our love for it with the 2nd place. Merr0w does the same although in his track We don’t NEED to release, we can always wait until the whole we think the music today is partly ambient cd of our Opus Iridium compilation, and we get the first euphoric melody which will guide us everyone is happy with the result. uninteresting, many releases sound exactly the I think this genre is going from strength to into the more typical Goa trance with fat melodic The DJ-ing issue is something else, only I – Dj Anoebis same and in many cases there is not one bit of strength at the moment! patterns by Radical Distortion and Filteria.