On October 15, 1994, my friends who had first introduced me to electronic music a month earlier took me to a one-off event that featured ‘DJ Oli from Goa’.

When I walked into the dance space that was illuminated and exuding an otherworldly atmosphere, the first thing I saw was a UV-reactive psychedelic batik with the Japanese word 元気 (Genki) on it. This struck me immediately because the word references a state of inner vitality and wholeness, possible translation of its two characters being ‘source energy’ or ‘original spirit.’ (I now own one of these, designed and produced by Ray Castle’s partner at the time Sachi, and it’s on my chair for most of my Retro Goa Explorations videos.)

There’s no doubt that no one in my life – least of all me – could have anticipated that a classical music geek like yours truly (at the time working on an important historical piano recordings project that would go on to win a German Music Critic’s Award) would dive head-first into uncharted territory with this whole musical scene … but there were signs there, signposts throughout my life that I couldn’t fully understand at the time (including a premonition dream of this very event when I was 10), and I was making connections to the entire history of classical music while dancing away to the alien sounds I was hearing that night.

The term ‘Space Tribe’ also hit me as I later looked at the flyer, trying to understand what I had been through on that Saturday night on the town in Tokyo. My impression upon seeing the fluorescent colourful geometric clothing worn by many dancers in the space was like superhero costumes from other planets, each person stripping themselves of the societal clothing of their public identity to reveal who they were at core and connect with their inner superpowers.

In that shared space with folks in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s coming from all over the globe – while I was around the world from where I grew up in a culture and language alien to mine – I was very much attuned to the fact that we all have elements in common and can celebrate those alongside our differences while we share space, sounds, and experiences together. I immediately felt connected to anywhere else in the universe where this kind of experience might be going on unbeknownst to us – and this felt like a celebration of that kind of possibility.

I didn’t actually see Olli that night: he was up behind some equipment coordinating the musical journey that night while a much more visible fellow was working the lighting effects (perfectly timed with the music, I must say) but he would become for me a symbol for me this whole musical and cultural scene. I never expected that this elusive figure who became an idol over the course of the following decades would later become a friend and, by how he held space at that time and through our conversations, also be a mentor.

I wrote more about this night and my deeper formative impressions about the music in my tribute to Olli that I penned the week he died a few years ago – click here to read that. 

I’ll also link two of my mixes in the comments thread that I think feature some of the sounds I likely heard that night, whose vague impressions I couldn’t quite grasp but whose atmosphere and flavour I distinctly remember: one of them is a 1995-themed mix that I created for an online party some years ago that surely includes some of the music I heard that night: 

and another is my set from Ozora this past summer that starts off with a track whose flavour and spoken sample very much for relate to the whole experience I had then – and I think the heart of the scene as a whole.

Check my SoundCloud page for a whole lot of other mixes, including the first mixtape I ever got from Tokyo-based DJ Spoo (Jay Mullen) that formed part of my approach to set construction (as did hearing him almost twice a month for over a year) and a recording of my first appearance as DJ Solitare, in Tokyo in 1998. 

Boundless thanks to all I’ve met on the dance floor and other related spaces over the last 30 years and to those who’ve given me the opportunity to share my perception of this music and what’s behind it as a DJ, writer, and speaker. Being part of the DAT Universe label since its inception and also being blessed by the invitation to be behind the decks at ZNA Gathering for each edition since 2015 have both helped me to further refine and deepen my commitment to this music and its deeper message.

I am also elated to continue to have the opportunity to work with some of the major producers of the scene, as a label DJ for Matsuri Digital headed by another of my idols, Tsuyoshi Suzuki – and producing my Beyond Exploration compilation for them two years ago, a tribute to my first impressions with this music – while also writing press releases for Twisted Records for the last 25 years, including helping with their deluxe LP edition of one of my all-time favourite producers, Hallucinogen.

The irony is also not lost on me that it was thanks to Oli Bookings in India – the organization’s name spelled the way Olli’s was on the flyer of that formative event in 1994! – that I was able to go to and play in Goa for the first time earlier this year (click here for the set).

Long may we continue to celebrate that which unifies us, waking up to who we really are and (ironically given the recollective nature of this post) the fact that instead of being nowhere or somewhere else, here we are – we live for this moment here!