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Etnica – 10 Essential Tracks

Etnica – 10 Essential Tracks

Etnica is an Italian Goa Trance project originally formed by Maurizio Begotti, Max Lanfranconi, Carlo Paterno and Andrea Rizzo. They met during some parties in Italy in the late ’80s and started composing in the beginning of the 90’s bringing their first ever release “The EP” in 1994 on Brainstorm Records. In 1995, their first album “The Juggeling Alchemists Under The Black Light” was out on the German label High Society. The release was received with great enthusiasm by the community at that time, and helped the band build a strong reputation and spread further the seeds of Goa Trance music. Beside producing under the project name Etnica, they started composing in 1995 also under the alias Pleiadians and in 1996 the joint project of Etnica and Lotus Omega aka Crop Circles was also formed. Their second album, the classic “Alien Protein” was released in 1996 on Blue Room Released.

Photo by “Shoot Your Shot” Photography

In 1998, the band moved to Ibiza ,with Carlo leaving the project in the meantime. Their third full-length album “Equator” was released in 1999 on Spirit Zone Records, but with Andrea’s departure later the same year, the project would now be carried on only by Max and Maurizio. In 2000, EtnicaNet Records was established with the help of Young Kim on the Balearic island of Ibiza.

Etnica are still very active, performing around the world on big events or smaller parties and are considered today as one of the pioneers and leading bands of the golden Goa Trance era.

Since the departure of Carlo and Andrea who were both mainly focused on the melodic aspect of the project , Max and Maurizio had to re-adapt their projects sound. Their fourth and fifth album, “Nitrox” (2001, Spirit Zone Recordings) and “Solstice” (2002, EtnicaNet) respectively are the result of this evolution in their sound, both having a more techno approach. In 2004 , their sixth full-length album “Sharp” was released on Solstice Music and was actually characterized by a more melodic approach, which was particularly appreciated by their old time fans.

Etnica @ U.N.I.T.Y Festival (Photo by Roy Halaf)

“Totenism -Etnica Remixed” released in 2006 on EtnicaNet Records featured 8 classic hits from Etnica, remixed by some of the most important psytrance acts of the new millennium, such as PTX & Bamboo Forest, and even containing a down-tempo version of the classic “Trip Tonight” remixed by Aes Dana & Nova. Their next release “Live in Athens 1996” was released in 2012 on DAT Records, and came in two parts. The first being the recording of their liveset on the night of the 12th of October 1996 in Athens (Greece) featuring some of best classic hits of Etnica and the second part being unreleased tracks produced between 1996 and 1999. In 2014, the album “Etnica In Dub” was released containing some of their most popular tracks rewritten in chillout/dub style.
Etnica are still very active, performing around the world on big events or smaller parties and are considered today as one of the pioneers and leading bands of the golden Goa Trance era.
Trancentral has prepared for you a list of ten essential Etnica tracks.