Deep, Psychedelic and Spacey

“We like it deep, psychedelic and spacey.”

Protonica are, of course, talking about music. The European DJs, aka best friends Piet Kaempfer and Ralf Dietze, have been blending throbbing progressive trance and psychedelic beats ever since they met in 2003. “I was presenting my own electronic show at an independent radio station in Germany when Piet sent in a couple of DJ mixes,” Ralf says. “A few weeks later we met and after a chat and some drinks we started producing beats till the early hours.”

The connection for the pair was instant and still very much present today. “It's cool,” Ralf continues, “that somehow after eight years the spirit of that first meeting is still alive.”

Music is something that’s been ever present in the duo's lives. For Piet, it was playing the piano as a child that fuelled this passion. “I was more taken by the synthetic sounds I heard from early techno tracks, though. I saved up to buy my first Roland synthesizer to experiment with the wide range of possible sounds. For me, trying to create new sounds that people haven't heard before is still my motivation.”

The DJs have brought their breed of “pure progressive trance with a touch of psychedelic” to a number of festivals including a set at Earth Frequency in 2012. “We’re looking forward to our first tour of Australia. At festivals it's a lot of fun to play to a packed dancefloor; the capacity of a club is limited. The sprit of the festival carries over to the crowd and of course to us.”

Over their years, Piet and Ralf have noticed the influence of digital media in DJing.  “In recent years, the transition towards digital media could be seen. The possibility of producing tracks or DJing is now available to everyone and tracks can be purchased easily and inexpensively. Unfortunately, this comes at the expense of the individuality and uniqueness of the tracks and artists. “(But) the new possibilities are great when you know how to use them. We don't miss the old times.”

Protonica play Earth Frequency, at Landcrusier Park, Sunshine Coast, February 17-20. earthfrequency.com.au