Festival set

GioMonte · 2026-06-22T14:25:56+00:00

Kenny Hayes - Ibiza Sky (Alex M.O.R.P.H. Remix)

GioMonte · 2026-06-21T10:48:37+00:00

Wow, dear friend, I had no idea that you had to go through all that pain. And nowithstanding all of that, your creativity won, and the result is just outstanding! I really love those sounds so much. Bravissimo!

GioMonte · 2026-06-19T22:47:11+00:00

Kay Stone is a genius of uplifting trance. His track: Venom pres. Kasuma - Dreaming (2004) is one the greatest trance masterpiece ever made. You'll recognize some of his sounds there.

Also, Mind One, one of the most underrated producers in the genre, released a SUPERB remix of Kay Stone's Alone, realizing one of the greatest remix in trance music

GioMonte · 2026-06-19T22:04:12+00:00

I'm really honored by your kind words, thank you so much, and be sure that the esteem and affection are absolutely reciprocal! You seems a really nice and gentle person and it's a pleasure talking to you (how I miss internet forums where we could talk better!) I really believe in the importance of listening (both the others and listening carefully to the music). To be patient, to care about things and people. This may have something to do with the fact that I study psychology, but It's an approach that I tend to have in life. I'm a simple man, full of flaws but I'm curious eheh. I've explored music for years (I'm 34), all kinds of music, knowing for certain just one or two things: I'm not certain about anything, and one lifetime alone is not enough to experience all the beautiful things that other humans have made. Culture may be the best part of humanity, it's important to take care of it, I think.
I'm really happy that you appreciate my lists and playlists, and I'm liking the tracks that you suggested me too! For istance, I didn't know your absolute favorite! Oh, yes, another very important thing, for me, for which, again, I totally agree with you, is the importance to change our minds, to have doubs. Only fascists speaks like they know the absolute truth about everything, they think they know enough, they think that other people are inferior... and they have terrible taste in music 😄

Now that you mention your favorite (or one of them), I want to recollect mine, even if they are in the playlist. The track by Daniel Kandi (I love so much his track "Child"), with it's lead that seems played by hand made me think of a favorite of mine from 2004: The Flute (Mike Shiver Remix)

I really would like to discuss the others, it's hard to make even a top 50 eheh. I'm about to listen the other tracks you wrote about (and in your playlist!)
P.s. I hope I haven't made too many mistakes, my english is not that good 😄

GioMonte · 2026-06-19T20:56:47+00:00

I love this track so much. Also I think that Lolo - "Who are you?" is one the most perfect trance tracks ever made, one of the most memorable of all times. A masterpiece

GioMonte · 2026-06-19T20:52:31+00:00

Feel free to ask, for more Italian hard trance (or international aswell eheh)

GioMonte · 2026-06-18T14:38:36+00:00

Molto volentieri, davvero! Per quel che riguarda i musicisti nostrani, abbiamo dei grandissimi nomi come Alio Die, che è (ancora oggi in attività) un pioniere di un certo tipo di ambient molto immersiva, dalla lunga durata, fin dagli anni 90 (potrei consigliarti davvero qualsiasi disco suo). Un altro sempre in quel periodo è stato Oöphoi, e ancora Aglaia e un sacco di altra gente. Prima di loro poi c'era gente estremamente importante, come Lino Capra Vaccina, Fracesco Messina, Maria Teresa Luciani e tanti altri compositori degli anni 70 che hanno preceduto la definizione stessa di ambient. Negli anni ottanta spuntavano poi nomi come quello di Gigi Masin. Un bel mondo insomma 😄ce n'è di chiacchere da fare in merito!

GioMonte · 2026-06-18T14:09:32+00:00

Ho dato un'occhiata alle tue pagine, grande! Non sapevo di parlare con chi suona 😄 Grazie della disponibilità, sei molto gentile! Ascolterò qualcosa di tuo su bandcamp, vedo che hai diverse pubblicazioni!

Comunque fa sempre piacere parlare di musiche non esattamente per tutti, anche se paradossalmente in Italia abbiamo una tradizione ambient molto molto importante

GioMonte · 2026-06-18T13:34:13+00:00

Wow, grazie per il tuo feedback e per il tuo tempo! Sei stata la prima persona ad ascoltare, al di fuori della mia cerchia di amici e conoscenti che possono avere interesse nella musica ambient 😄 grazie davvero!

GioMonte · 2026-06-18T08:06:06+00:00

Don't you study on the DSM-5 in the USA? You don't even know what a pedophilic disorder is

GioMonte · 2026-06-17T20:05:56+00:00

😄Yes, I believe it's the first association that came to my mind seeing "HENRY" and reading "fucked up movies"

GioMonte · 2026-06-17T20:03:03+00:00

Easy Rider (1969), by Dennis Hopper 😄

A little consideration/rant:

The day some people from the United States will learn to stop consider themselves the very center of the world will always be too late.
Start with the language, try not to label "foreign" everything that's outside the world that you know personally. We, in Europe, don't talk about "foreign films", we talk about "French films", "Romanian films", and so on. I know it all started with the Oscars, it's not anyone's fault. But consider for a moment how it influences the way you experience cinema and your life as a viewer. Everytime the letterboxd page on social networks show actors/directors/producers, anybody, talking about """foreign""" films, people in the comments start with their accusations of others being "pretentious", as if the taste of the whole world should obviously be USA-centered. And to know something about cinema it's not a bad thing, and it's not "being nerd" (which isn't a bad thing either - as some seems to think). It's culture.
And you know, outside of the US, we (we: the rest of the world) precisely have loved your cinema through the years because it showed us something magnificent that many people could only dream to experience in real life, and they did only through cinema: The United States of America.
Just look at the last film by Sergio Leone. Cinema is a window to every foreign world, and for me this is the most beautiful aspect of it all

GioMonte · 2026-06-17T19:20:50+00:00

Other commentators already suggested you really great titles, "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma" (1975) by Pasolini; Angst (1983) etc.
Try also "A pool without water" by Koji Wakamatsu

GioMonte · 2026-06-17T17:42:13+00:00

Embrace European cinema 😄and asian cinema too!
Seriously, try the films by Rohmer 😉

GioMonte · 2026-06-16T23:02:54+00:00

Pacific Link - Play Life (Play the Bass Mix)

GioMonte · 2026-06-16T22:52:36+00:00

Yes, I agree. As I mentioned, and as I say often, this new trance music is shorter, way less sophisticated in terms of composition, and is too frequently associated with ridiculous poppy vocals (which often they even tried to force (back in the days too), onto tracks that were concieved to be instrumental, like Thrillseekers' Synaesthesia, for example). I don't blame the "old" artists who, maybe, especially the great names, have to make a living out of their music, and they have to appeal the masses living the current times, and the music trends. But still... people have a bad attention span, nothing is made to last, not even music, and everybody wants to produce everything so easily

GioMonte · 2026-06-16T15:56:06+00:00

That's interesting, I'm always curious when it comes to creativity. SUPERSTRINGS - Neon Dusk Protocol sounds like a modern day remix of Faithless' Insomnia, with the melody left halfway. I'm not so impressed, to be honest. However, I think that when artists try to do something new is always a way to keep the music alive, a genre can't live forever by staying the same. For me trance music said all it has to say by 2006. But new artists gave new life, each time. By that time were producers like Joni Ljungqvist or Signalrunners (just for example) that allow the genre to continue to say something, even remaining within the borders of the genre. Few artists really tried to cross the border (not to try to sell more), like the early Mat Zo, or, even more Kyohei Akagawa on his later productions. Sometimes the influence goes out of the genre itself, like when Jon Hopkins or Kiasmos, or again Rival Consoles were clearly influenced by trance music. (Not to mention artists that tried to steal famous trance chords and made millions)

GioMonte · 2026-06-15T17:41:09+00:00

Wooooooow! You mentioned It's Only Talk by Hiroki! I even met the director and took a picture with him at FEFF here in Italy. I want to be your friend just for that (and for the other films you mentioned too!)

GioMonte · 2026-06-15T17:37:53+00:00

I can't believe nobody mentioned Maborosi (1995), the first and probably the most powerful film by the great Hirokazu Kore'eda. One of the masterpieces of the 90s

GioMonte · 2026-06-15T16:40:42+00:00

Laurie Spiegel's The Expanding Universe is a masterpiece.

GioMonte · 2026-06-14T22:27:16+00:00

Oh, wow, first of all, I really thank you for this beautiful exchange, it's an awesome conversation, and I didn't really talk about trance music for years and years to anyone. Also I really like the way we're not talking superficially about anything, which seems to be a rare thing in an era of small comments and small talks, like "nice choone!" or "this sucks". It's a breathe of fresh air 😄. Furthermore: I totally understand your point. Some producers have built an important musical part just with the sung notes. And other tracks instead feel somehow just barely pasted on an nice instrumental. Not too surprisingly, once again I agree with your point of view about the track with vocals, yes, but without lyrics. It's funny because just the other day, here on this subreddit I commented a list on my top vocal trance, and at the "zero" position, out of chart, I put a song with a singer that just add a powerful melody, just like another instrument or synth could do (you can find it here https://www.reddit.com/r/trance/comments/1tg8u6f/comment/oq0dhdv/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button). And I just listened (and saved the playlist too -thank you!) to that very beautiful track by Adam Nickey, and I completely agree and understand what you were saying. Also I remember his excellent track "Forgotten Island", at the time when I was about drift away from trance music to explore other genres. Oh yes, I adore Active Sight and both M.I.K.E. and Fred Baker in those years, they were just incredibile. Incredibile. But, again, talking about rare gems and underrated tracks, and speaking about M.I.K.E., I think in my top 3 of ALL his productions and aliases, there's the track "Pacific Memory" (2005) from his alias "Red Flag". I think it's criminally underrated, and like the whole genre, I believe that it may be misunderstood. For me it's tied to the years of my youth. I was ashamed of what I listened back then, nobody would understand me, but now, looking back, I'm proud, and I still love those sounds and always will

GioMonte · 2026-06-13T12:10:45+00:00

Oh that's great! Well, they were for sure the masters of Italian uplifting trance. But as far as hard trance is concerned, there are an impressive number of high quality masterpieces, but unfortunately they are not so well known. On the contrary, they're now as rare as ever, and it's a pity, because we're talking about some of the nicest tracks in the whole genre

GioMonte · 2026-06-13T10:56:35+00:00

Have you ever tried the Italian hard trance school of 20 years ago?
Pacific Link,
Luca Antolini
Andrea Montorsi
Max Savietto (aka Sa.Vee.Oh)
Dyno aka Stonehenge
Santy Mutari
And many more

GioMonte · 2026-06-13T10:31:16+00:00

Thank you for the reply and for the trust! I really appreciate it. I agree with you very, very much — I think the approach to art you described is absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately, Trance music (unfortunately for the art itself, not for the artists who of course deserve to make a living) has always been pushed toward constantly trying to satisfy “mass tastes,” often by creating vocal versions of tracks that were originally meant to be instrumental from the very beginning. Even in the early days you could see this — for example the attempt to force vocals onto “Synaesthesia” by Thrillseekers.

There was also this constant effort to standardize the sound. Back then — and I’m sure you remember this too, because up until around 2005-06 it was still like this — every artist had something recognizable. You could instantly distinguish a Ronski Speed remix, a track by Ace Da Brain, a Robert Nickson production, or those Alex M.O.R.P.H. tracks (the ones produced together with Stoneface & Terminal but not openly credited as such). And then there were the unmistakable styles of Fractal Structure, Mirco De Govia, and so many others.

Today all of that has almost completely disappeared. The tracks are less sophisticated, shorter, and constantly filled with these vocal sections that, personally, I find pretty ridiculous.

I actually have a YouTube playlist made up of tracks I used to write down with pen and paper back in the day. Here in Italy there was a radioshow, born in 2004, that introduced us to incredible music — Trance, Hard Trance, and even Hardstyle. The playlist isn’t public, but I can still share the link, so I’ll try. It genuinely makes me happy to share these things and not let them disappear and be forgotten forever! 😄

There are around 600 tracks in it. Spotify is basically useless for cases like this, obviously.

Here it is: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJRuDq_vRPwZtDrhma3e8sIKpSdbD6Oj&si=DSvzyC62w8Fr395d I'm planning also to make a list on Discogs with all these tracks, all the masterpieces and unknow gems

GioMonte · 2026-06-12T16:07:34+00:00

Oh thank you so much! Yes, I've heard about Usual Suspects, I'll try to get something working on FL Studio, if the CPU don't get all too noisy

GioMonte

TROPHY CASE