Buzzing in this Friday, BASIS welcomes electrifying Utrecht based duo Ultrastation. The masterminds behind Ultrastation, Nuno dos Santos and Ben Spaander (Cosmic Force), embody an atomic radio specialized in Ultra sonic waves and subsonic consciousness – only to be found in the wavelength of fuzzy strangeness.
24th March is a long-awaited day for this duo. Waiting years for the right moment to host their own night. Finally, a chosen day, space and sound presenting Red Skies with confidence and yet full of anticipation. Ultrastation has curated a line-up that represents their exact brand and this event: Friendship, community, and destined synchronicity, some might even call it fate. With 50 years of nightlife experience shared between the two cheeky charmers from Utrecht, the night is ready for full blast off, leaving the skies red.
ABOUT THE ULTRASTATION DUO
After Ben and Nuno met, the energy just matched. A friendship of curiosity and love for music blossomed. Hanging out at the studio and events together, they both became inspired and learned from each other and their surroundings. Whether it’s about sleeping in till noon like Ben or barely drinking alcohol like Nuno – they are opposites in lifestyle and vision. Finding bits of themselves between all the differences is what makes them work – like the balance in Yin and Yang, exact destined synchronicity.
It never became a conscious decision to hop on this motherboard together, but the morphing of sounds was easy and mutual. During an Ultrastation set, there is no distinction between the two artists. Combining the decks from Nuno with Ben’s modular synths, the track and live configuration transcends polarity and unite as uniform sound of hypnotising groovy comet rain of techno. ‘Sometimes I don’t even know if a sound is coming from my record or from Ben’s machines’ shares Nuno. ‘I like giving my headphones to people in the front row to let them hear the modular without the mixed track underneath.’ When the synchronisation is broken into isolated layers, people are always confused responding with ‘OMG, what is even happening here?’.
To become as skilful as the stellar Ultrastation, Nuno recommends reaching out to friends and artists in the community, whether online or in person. This is exactly what he did and still learns to craft his sound and technique (Ben even used to trade music techniques and synth information like Pokémon cards at cafés before the internet existed), to now be able to share it forward online.
ABOUT THE CURATION
Ben and Nuno have prepared a curation that fits in their storyline of community and fate. Red skies represent high eclectic energy, just like Ultrastation’s latest EP (Don’t miss out on the Red Skies EP giveaway on Instagram).
Before BASIS and LUX, there was club Shiva. This is where young Nuno, fresh age of 19 working as a light jockey could be found. Today, you can find Nuno at behind the decks mixing music, at the computer producing tracks or even at illegal raves – coincidentally where Nuno and Ben also discovered Mauro Moreno’s sound in techno. “Mauro Moreno plays techno like he plays house music, it’s rolling groovy and energetic, like how the night will be”.
Nuno has known Mirella Kroes for an incredibly long time. One of their early memories is playing on a boat in Utrecht, 15 years ago. As this friendship stands the test of time, so does her sound. Trippy with high energy, be sure to get lost in the shuffle of yet minimal but full power of her sets.
Coincidentally, or fate, a long-time friend of BASIS, Ultrastation requested Ghost in the Machine to play the closing set for 24th March. They had been introduced via social media and have received lots of love and support from Ghost in the Machine on any posts about sets or music releases – whether it’s giving feedback or actually playing Ultrastation tracks in their sets, the two groups show what community can look like online. Nuno pondered… ‘The internet is great! It’s awesome to see people come together, forming communities, sharing their knowledge and then creating arts in real life.’
24 MARCH – ULTRASTATION PRESENTS: RED SKIES
Red Skies goes beyond trends and presents itself as a timeless vessel able to connect people from across electronic music genres. From online and offline friendship and community, Ultrastation is bringing in artists to curate a full circle night of how the 030 local artists projects music in Utrecht.
BASIS and Ultrastation is hosting a vinyl giveaway on instagram, don’t miss out!
Discover existent sounds, tracks and those yet to be created this Friday. Nuno will also be celebrating his birthday that night (after midnight, on the 25th). Dance with us during this special moment on the 24th March at BASIS, tickets available via our ticket shop.
