Torsten (Omananda) + Iselin's 'Darkpsy' Wedding - Featuring Goa Gil - 07/07/07

06/07/07. Our crew set off on our darkpsy wedding adventure in the afternoon and arrived on Friday night after taking every conceivable wrong turn possible on the way. A journey which should have taken around 4-5 hours ended up taking us 10 hours!!! Anyway, that’s a story for another day!!!

On arrival it was pouring with rain so we set up camp as quickly as possible and then got some sleep. In the morning we went for a little exploration of the location and eventually ended up at the ambient stage where there were different djs playing music throughout the weekend, except when Goa Gil was playing.

After having a little morning stomp....

....I headed back to the campsite. I bumped into Torsten and Iselin on my way and wished them well for their special day.
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07/07/07 was the special date set for the marriage of Torsten (Omananda) who was the producer of the wonderful psychedelic film ‘Liquid Crystal Vision’, and Iselin Bruff, director of the theatre performance crew ‘The Freakshow’ who have performed their show in many settings including as the opening performance at VooV festival in Germany.

The couple had both felt a strong connection with the number 7 and had planned to wed at 7:07am on the 07/07/07. Due to unforeseen complications however, they married at 7:07pm instead. The ceremony was conducted by a ‘psychedelic’ priest in a beautiful forest clearing surrounded by friends, family, well-wishers and the couple’s ‘pet nymph’!!!

After the ceremony there was a 2 hour interlude before Goa Gil began his marathon 24 hour darkpsy dj set at 10pm. Gil played from his ‘altar’ which was covered with a plastic sheet. In front of him was the dancefloor and behind the dancefloor was a huge white sheet on which were playing awesome visuals throughout the night, courtesy of Omananda and Tantric Demon.

The music and atmosphere was wonderful and the dancefloor was permanently energised. Gil played some real cutting edge darkpsy throughout the night, a great many filthy unreleased tracks as well as some familiar tunes. He also played some crazy experimental darkpsy tracks which lingered around the 200bpm mark. Fun but only in small doses, for my personal taste anyway.

It must be said that as far as technical skills go Gil is not a particularly impressive dj but when you take into account the fact that he mixes using DATs, exceptions must be made. Even using DATs however, (which sound phat by the way!) he blended the tracks well for the most part and Gil’s taste and timing is superb, always playing the exact right track at the exact right time and pushing the trance forwards and deeper.

At around 2am it was the unveiling of The Freakshow! A unique performance art spectacle which included fireworks, a fire show, performance art piece incorporating an array of magical creatures, shadow works using the white backdrop and of course movement and dance. All this being conducted against a stage that constantly moved with colours and fractal shapes and was accompanied by a pounding darkpsy soundtrack.

After the show all eyes were back on Goa Gil and the party continued from then onwards right through the next day.

All in all it was a beautiful occasion. The right people were there and there was a real family atmosphere over the whole place. The forest was simply stunning and was home to every conceivable shade of green known to nature!!! There was also a gorgeous lake on site which was easily accessible though a little cold for swimming in. The ceremony was like a fairytale and the party was very unique, not least because the 'godfather of darkpsy' played but because the whole concept itself was unique and magical.

The only problem was unfortunately the weather. It rained mercilessly almost constantly from Friday to Monday and all of us who had expected a weekend of sunshine and had not packed rain clothes ended up soaking wet for the majority of the weekend. The entire celebration I feel would have been 10 times more enjoyable had there been sun but a happy and fun time was had by all who attended nonetheless.

I would personally like to thank Gabi 'Pacifist' and Martin 'Octodur' for inviting me to join their crew on their road trip to the party, Torsten and Iselin for allowing us all to share in their special day, Goa Gil for his set, for allowing me to take some photos backstage and also for giving me a copy of his latest mixed album Worldbridger. Of course a HUGE thank you to everyone who was there and warmed the celebration with their smiles and good vibes.

Last but not least THANK YOU to the Divine Music Tribe without whom none of this would have been possible.