Tristan Cooke’s name cannot be segregated from the psy-scene, his spirited music has kept the trance-floors alive for over a decade. Here he gives us his perspective on Goa, although he confesses, “I kind of veered from the point a little I’m afraid…Might have been something to do with that pipe I had after breakfast! Anyway I thought I’d write about something that’s inspiring me…”
“Goa… Roaring down the road on a single cylinder classic Enfield Bullet 500cc, the wind in the hair (no helmets required), the palm trees silhouetted against the sun-soaked sky, freak-energy oozing from every pore of this place… it’s still only 9am and it’s my turn to do the school run!!!
Somehow I don’t get this same feeling doing the same routine in the rain in London in March.
There’s a party happening every single night this week, promo parties for trance events in Europe like the Sonica, Ozora, Modem and Universo Parallelo, there’s birthday bashes, and there’s beach-shack party nights-like Shiva Valley, Curlies, Monkey Valley, Chronicle and 9 Bar to name just a few….
It’s like living in a festival, or perhaps the festivals are trying to recreate this environment: being surrounded by non-stop music and dancing; a mecca for freaks, trancers, yogis, beach bums and backpackers, designers and dealers, traders and tourists, lost souls, searching souls, found-it souls and all manner of alternative lifestylers that you can imagine; and all bound by one thing: Freedom.
The kind of freedom I haven’t found anywhere else- the heady mix of spirituality and hedonism, the tolerance of the wonderful local people (Goa was a Portuguese colony so there is a mix of religions) and of course the affordability compared to the West.
This is the antidote to the European model of urban living- a permanent holiday compared to the constant grind of work and bills; a place for mind-expansion rather than the pressure to conform; being surrounded by friends and like-minded people rather than being separated into our smallest divisible unit so that we can consume the most; in other words the Freedom here with a Capital F to do or more importantly BE what you want…
Something I get asked a lot is what keeps me inspired to keep producing and performing psychedelic trance?
Coming to Goa reinforces why – Trying to recreate for others the experiences I had here 20 or so years ago hearing psychedelic dance music on LSD. That moment on the dance floor when everybody connects, where the energetic whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a sense of being and becoming pure energy; you can tangibly feel things ‘come together’; an electricity, a cosmic connection to something indescribable. No wonder somebody coined it ‘Spiritual Raving’.
I had been partying to different types of dance music before I heard Goa Trance, but it was here that I had my epiphany, a sense of ‘coming home’ and I knew I had found my proverbial kindred spirit.
The tools at my disposal to make this music have changed drastically over time, now my whole studio is in my laptop, digital technology (for better or worse) taking over the analogue world, the microchip allowing me to make the sounds in my head into a reality coming out of the speakers for people to enjoy… it just gets better!!
Goa did have some seasons off the radar, but it’s had a massive renaissance and now it is as important to our scene and community as it’s ever been. I love it here and as much as it’s changed, it still seems to facilitate my ultimate Way Of Life more than any other….
Thanks for reading
XXXX- Tristan”