From Psychedelic Traveller

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area, and shares land borders with the United States to the south and northwest.

History

The psytrance scene arrived in Canada in 1995 at the legendary event Emergence held in Montreal courtesy of Mobius productions and set off a steady spread across the major urban cores. While other genres of electronica were gathering huge crowds at very public venues at the time, psytrance for the most part preferred to remain underground and by doing so create a very close and vibrant community.

[2009] Trance in CANADA's wilderness paradise

written by Nokturnal

Despite being spread over 9 million square km's, Canada's trance scene is a well connected and close web of diverse and yet welcoming local communities. From dancing under the stars and Northern Lights on a warm summer’s night to snowbound winter retreats tucked away in warm winter lodges, those with wandering feet and open hearts are always very well rewarded.

Organistations

Pioneer production groups such as Team Psyence in Alberta (1996), Deleria in British Columbia (1998) and the Black Light Activists in Toronto (1999), along with other past organizations such as The TeknoCollective (Alberta), Goa Chill Nights (Quebec), People Under The Stairs (Quebec/Alberta) and Deep Sea Fish (Toronto) were all instramental in bringing the psytrance sound to new ears.

Parties

Summer time in Canada is an explosion of energies due to the very cold winters and excitement builds over many months for Quebec's Eclipse Festival and Alberta's Motion Notion Festival, two of Canada's premier outdoor gatherings. Both of these events are very high quality and some of the best in the world. Other superb outdoor summer gatherings include Space Gathering, Diversity, Harvest Festival, Entheos Gathering and a new event for 2008 which had very good reviews: Astral Harvest by the Techno Hippy Crew.

Indoor

By necessity the snowy winters bring events indoors with production crews such as Area709, Phonolite, Ganesha, Black Light Activists, Freak Addiction Krew, Tribal Prophecy, Trance Plants, Techno Hippy Crew, 7th Harmonic, Shakti, Metamystix, Winnipeg Psychedelic Productions, Mistaya, Deliria and Beats without Borders, all keeping trancers warm by dancing away the dark cold months. Visionary artists creating psy-inducive environments such as Neil Gibson, Simon Haiduk, DeJahVu, Deliria, Myth Makers, Luke Brown, Julien Seyer and Crystal and Spore also bring an integral element to each night's journey.

Artists

Two Canadian producers and one DJ had a big year in 2008: Anahata (Matte Gillard) released his double cd album Conduktor which he performs in 5.1 surround sound and was the first release for the newest Canadian label: Area709 Recordings. Ekoplex (Ray Vincent) was voted one of the best new producers for 2008 on Isratrance.com. The same poll also placed the compilation: Sea Of Vapours by DJ Nokturnal for Zenon Records (produced by Australian artists) as one of the best of the year. The legendary label Interchill continued its top notch release schedule with Eat Static and Kaya Project in 2008.

Another great way to dip your toes into a local trance pond is to head down to one of the long standing club nights such as Amazone at SPAG in Montréal and Organix at Club 23 in Vancouver. The web is a powerful tool as well, and message boards such as www.psyfreaks.ca and www.tribalharmonix.org are both very helpful.

While the distances are indeed vast, those with a sense of adventure will find that once they have found their way into a Canadian gathering of trancers they are among a very large and friendly family.