Eastern Mediterrenean Grooves in CROATIA

Although Croatia is independent for only 15 years, the Croatian people have lived here since the 7th century, and had many alliances with other nations, such as Austrian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Serbian…

Croatia is a democratic republic, with population of about 4 million. People here are usually friendly and the greatest Croatian treasure is its intact nature, clean water, beautiful sea and unpolluted air.

Besides many cultural monuments, like the amphitheatre in Pula, Dioklecian’s palace in Split, old city parts of Dubrovnik and Zagreb, obligation for every visitor of this country are numerous national parks like Plitvice, Kornati, Krka waterfalls, Lonjsko polje and hundreds of islands.

The Trance scene started around 95-96 with the couple of enthusiasts. Most important of them is for sure dj Marino from Pula, Space Lily (yes, one of the first Croatian trance djs was a djane) and Utopia/Dogma duo from Zagreb. With years they’ve managed to make great parties, and the scene was born. Zagreb and Pula are the strongest trance centers in Croatia, with organizers like Metamedia and Marsroom (pu), Astralis and Tribalizer in Zagreb.

Since techno is by far the most popular style of electronic music here, that makes the trance scene pretty much underground, with exception of Astralis, the party that has around 2000 ppl on every event.

During the summer, on the beautiful coast, there are a couple of very big and some smaller festivals, and most important of them is Underwater Overground festival (with last year’s guests like Tristan, Dimitri, Peter Didjital, Chris Organis, Tolis Q, Emok, Matenda and others), then Media Mediterranea (the audio-visual art festival that lasts for one week, based on trance music, but also open to every other musical style), Free Spirit (with the most beautiful scenery of all fests here, on the island) and the Solartribe fest, organized by Solarsiv crew from Italy (also brought some great artists like S-Range, Phoney Orphants, Antix, and many others).

When it comes to djing, couple of names should be included: Marino (Metamedia,Pula), Nesho & Alen (Marsroom, Pula), Ludvig & Go-Cut (Astralis), Kobaygi, Sekkt, Njax and Hip (Tribalizer), Ganesh (Submedia), but as well some older djs that we’ve all learned from like Gobo and Chubba (who were residents in Trance Buddha, Amsterdam).

When it comes to production, first name is Dogma3000, with three albums (on Rtts, Hadshot) and numerous singles (Dragonfly, Usta and many more), but there are couple of young and very promising artists like Shuma (with releases on Hadshot and Solarsiv), Mokk (Hadshot, Balloonia rec), Parrket and In-Nascor.

No label opened in Croatia yet, but in near future that will change for sure. Until then, you can buy a couple of cds or lps in Planet Music shop, Zagreb.

Date: Apr 29, 2005
Text: Emir Cehaic / dj hip
Taken from: The Trancers Guide to the Galaxy 2004

Doc Sonic informs

If you are interested in ethnobotany, just talk to Croatians about it, don’t do anything by yourself, and everyone will be happy. Amphetamines, XTC and LSD are consumed there. Dealing and possession are illegal.