Ute.Rec: An all-star trance ‘cast’

Ute.Rec, an Oslo-based trance-collective label, is set to release the second record in its Interstellar Excursions ‘VA’ series on July 14 2021, offering a glimpse of its rhapsody here, also enticing those ‘entranced’ (ha ha) enough, to pre-order it here. The release consists of four tracks designated for those who might enjoy trance, particularly—a lot. It entices those who might not have even recognised it as trance. But most importantly, it might trick you into liking trance. One might think to oneself, ‘trance’ and suddenly pucker a sodden and soured face. However, Ute.Rec has remarkably sabotaged such a misdemeanor: Music that reinvents your perspective on a genre should be inscrutable and indulged. And Ute.Rec has successfully achieved the aforementioned. 

The somewhat ‘hyper-niche’ collective has been an integral go-to, both viscerally and sonically, over the past few years in Norway, with club nights at Blå, “forest raves” in Oslo and a stage at Oslo’s Musikkfest in 2018. Ute.Rec and co., efficaciously open the doors to the proverbial heavens for those wishing to enter the realms of sometimes-ambient-sometimes-hard-trance records, club nights (Uteklubb) and “intimate music festivals,” according to Marius Bø—one of the founders of the label.

The collective, which also runs sub-labels Sinensis and Translusid, explores the various branches of the genre “from goa trance to hard trance to ambient trance,” explains Bø. 

For those seeking out an omni-euphoric starter-pack to sophisticated trance without the ‘daggy’ connotations, the instigators of a relatively revived and once-tepid genre (from the undecidedly external perspective) consist of Oprofessionell, Ekkel, Marius Bø, Carl-Fuck, Haider, Mikkel Rev, Marilao, Omformer & Accelerationism. 

The group additionally released a fundraiser compilation with Mama Snake’s label, Amniote Editions on May 25 2021, raising money for The Red Van—A volunteer-run NGO working with harm reduction and human rights for street-based sex workers in Copenhagen. 

Regardless of your electronic-leanings, you might as well do yourself a favour and lend an ear to Bø and co. You’ve made it this far. ‘There’s so far left to go!’ said the kid at the front manoeuvring the group through the forest rave (ha ha).