How did Synthetic Sadhus come about? Who are you? Gilles is originally French and was in the electronic scene since the early 90s in Paris. He fell into Electronic music in 1989 passing through Belgium and getting his hands on a few black-labels of New Beat sounds. Then the BOY opened in Paris and launched the first real techno DJs such as Laurent Brainwasher, Gilles was a regular at all the very first Mozinor, Phantoms, Invaders, Trance body express and Tekno Tanz parties, just to name a few and he also organised parties with DJs such as Stephanovitch, Laurent Ho, Liza Neliaz, more techno and hardcore, but it was 1992 and Goa trance was just starting in Europe.

What is your most memorable party or incident when putting on party?

The most memorable of our parties remains the TIP (Congrats on 10 year anniversary: Ed) party in November 2000 with Hallucinogen, Raja Ram, Dimitri and Paul Taylor. The magic was there that night, the crowd formed an unseperable entity, the music transcended all expectations, pulsating melodies, pounding grooves, the psychedelic New York family really gathered with a passionate energy, it was an organic feeling of unity through sound and visuals. Also thanks to Brahma, who remains the most amazing psychedelic painter there is in this scene! Then the Return to the Source of June 2000 was also an unforgettable experience for those who had the privilege to attend, between the magical performances of Medicine Drum, Cosmosis, Laughing Buddah, and the fire dancers, the jugglers, the crowd literally melted with the performers, it was like a blooming sacred, ancient and futuristic ceremony, where everyone forgot the notion of time and space, diving into the funked-up, stomping atmosphere of magic and fluorescent beats...Simply amazing!

The first step is to have a passionate relationship with what you do, in other words to have a noble motivation, over than money, otherwise you’re dead. Then it is very important to find an original space; a place that can host a trance party has to be special. Since in New York, it is out of the question to party under the stars, it is a must to find indoor places that can host such a gathering of energy. Then of course it is important to assemble a line up that will fit as an evolution but will remain eclectic in order to give several sides to the spectrum of trance music.

Then, the aesthetic side of the party is primordial to me; I am born in a painter’s family and am very concerned with the look of the party. Each party must be different and must allow the people to enter into another dimension. But we are spoiled, we have Jamin Murphy in NYC, who builds original string and fabric art every time on top of the overseas artists that I bring, also Krisz who built 3-dimensional sculptures, giant mushrooms, lotus, mandalas, etc that bring a very complete and rich environment to the eyes of the beholders.

Then comes the quality of the sound system, for which once again we are VERY spoiled, we have a crew of music lovers, Music First Productions who did the sound for the Rolling Stones and have been on the concert circuit for twenty years, sound is their life and they have granted us the privilege to work with us since the very beginning! I think that with such a recipe, you have a good chance to throw a decent gig

What’s best synthetic or organic? And how do you relate psychedelic use to the trance scene and party atmosphere?

Well, this music is surely synthetic but also creates an organic feeling, they are hard to dissociate and that is one of the characteristics of trance. It melts elements that were never melted before, elements that seemed paradoxical, such as the relationship between the fascination we have for the ancient tribes and the curiosity we hold for the future worlds; such as the dependency we have towards the latest technologies in order to create ancient melodies. We are surfing between the influences of the past and the references of the future, and we found a way to create a culture that does not reject any ideas nor influences, a culture which like a sponge, accepts openly what worked before but adds the challenge of experimentation. There is such a tremendous variety of influences when you listen to this music that you can only feel a sense of universality that can only exist in modernity, simply because the technology recently gave us the possibility to reach such a cultural meltdown! So when we come to talk about psychedelic use, of course it is an important part of the scene, but it is another influence, more than it is a reference, you don’t NEED to be high to enjoy a good party, but I will not deny that psychedelic drugs are an important part of a good party. As products will be consumed anyway, surely it is better if these products are good psychedelics, because they open people’s consciousness in a spiritual sense through an animal metamorphosis! Superficial drugs simply kill a good trance party, we are the newly reborn psychedelic generation, and the culture we built is at the image of the beliefs we cultivate, we chose the raw side of life in a melting pot of instinctive intuitions and spiritual aspirations, therefore drugs in the party will play a role on its atmosphere, it’s unavoidable!

I think one of the characteristics of the New York trance scene is that there are almost no Americans in it, maybe 20 percent, everyone else is Israeli, Japanese, Russian or Eastern European and that is why we always have on average 1000 souls in our parties. Americans they like sugar-coated music, clubs or very commercial raves. Psy-trance in New York represents the underground and they have not yet found the curiosity to join us.

Well the US trance scene holds several undercurrents, some groups are more oriented towards progressive Nordic sound, some others more directed towards full-on Israeli style and for us, we kind of follow the real psychedelic European pioneers, mostly English & Germans! Regarding the rave scene, they are very much into Drum & Bass, commercial techno and Jungle. Line-ups holding 100s of artists, 10 rooms, 10.000 people, etc.

Logic Bomb