In collaboration with Electron Festival

JAMES HOLDEN
Holden was only nineteen and had not yet finished college when he embarked on a professional career in the more commercial realm of dance music, when a debut 12″ (Horizons) was taken over by a label supported by Sony Music in the glorious years of trance in 1999. An international career as a DJ and remixer for stars (from Madonna and Britney to Radiohead, New Order and Depeche Mode) opened up to him, aided by his own label Border Community, proudly DIY, and an unstoppable remix of The Sky Was Pink by his protege Nathan Fake, an authentic dance anthem that, in various corners of electronic music, has come to define the sound of the middle of the eighties.

Fast forward to 2023, and though the studio-assembled audio collage of his generically unconstrained new solo album of rave music for a parallel universe Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities stands in unmistakable contrast to the dogma of the expanded band and from the live take of its jazz-adjacent predecessor, it also seems to represent a throwback to Holden's musical past, with subtle nods and callbacks to notable moments in that twenty-year-long sonic history, as well as the occasional input from larger members of the Animal Spirits live family. The undulating dancefloor melancholy of In The End You'll Know, the spiraling kinetic arpeggios and hazy vocals of Trust Your Feet and Continuous Revolution awaken distant memories of his former DJ career, while driving synths and drums, pagan noises and synthesizers are essential elements of Animal Spirits' music, The driving synths and drums, pagan noise, synthesized strings and shimmering nostalgia of its seminal era, Inheritors, remain ubiquitous (Continuous Revolution, Worlds Collide Mountains Form, The Answer Is Yes, Infinite Fadeout), albeit with a lighter, brighter sheen.

With a whole new set of alternative rave anthems ready to be unleashed on the world, Holden (along with select guest artists) hits the road again with his bespoke, jam-ready live setup that combines his own computer and box of modular synths, designed and printed in 3D, with a carefully chosen selection of synth modules and auto-coded digital plug-ins. Holden is a long-time proponent of Cycling74's Max/MSP programming language, which he recently used to create an ambitious modular sequencing and synthesis environment to facilitate his live performance, which he also plans (per his collectivist impulses) to make available to other budding music creators through his website.

The live is richer in synths and more suitable for electronic / dance contexts (but not at peak times in the middle of djs). It's hypnotic and for the dance (optional), very trippy + freeform, but it plays “the hits” from all its albums.

Orphia
Orphia admits that at the beginning of his practice, he felt a little alone in this electronic universe. “But the more time goes by, the more I realize that Geneva is full of artists who are too strong, in particular Tchola who is teaching me lots of things about modular systems at the moment. What makes Orphia vibrate? To be able to make music on real machines, to be able to share a culture, it must be said, a bit geeky and above all, to do it freely.

Crowdpleaser
He calls himself "the crowd charmer". And it suits him like a glove, as the sounds and beats distilled by the renowned Geneva DJ Crowdpleaser for almost fifteen years generate smiles on the dance floors. Author of about thirty maxis and remixes since his first album in 1999, Crowdpleaser likes to play with genres by oscillating between techno and disco, with a penchant for atmospheres with languid and sensual darkness.

Doors open at 8:00 p.m.

ENTRANCE: 22.-
Prelocs: 18.-
PTR members: 15.-
20YEARS/20Francs: 20.-

From 16 years old
Children under 16 must be accompanied by a legal guardian or an adult with a power of attorney signed by the legal guardian.

www.ptrnet.ch