With the end of 2007 drawing near, Sydney celebrated as always with a huge variety of Near Years Eve and New Years Day parties throughout the city. Trance fans were spoilt this year on NYE with two massive names hitting Space nightclub: German duo Cosmic Gate and Italian legend Giuseppe Ottaviani. Cosmic Gate have been main players in the harder-edged trance scene for almost a decade now and have recently reinvented themselves with a new progressive and uplifting sound, both in their new productions and DJ sets. Giuseppe Ottaviani is another huge name in the scene (also well known by the moniker Nu NRG) and has been responsible for producing numerous anthems over the years. Recently he has been blending many of these into a live performance also incorporating collaborations with Paul van Dyk and numerous remixes. Also supporting the internationals on the night were be locals Nik Fish, Archie, Steve Hill, Pulsar, Ryan Di Matteo and Connect.

After taking in the 9pm fireworks and getting stuck into some quality champagne, we scurried over to the Space venue above the Shark Bar to try and make it to the event before the all important midnight countdown. Luckily we spotted the rest of our crew quite close to the entrance and all made our way in fairly swiftly. As the lift door opened to the Space level we were blasted with a wave of hard trance sounds with a remix of Agnelli & Nelson’s Everytime resonating throughout the side room where many punters were already getting into the manic atmosphere. We grabbed a drink and made our way to the main room where Cosmic Gate had already kicked off their mammoth 4-hour set. It was slightly disappointing to see the main room only a third full but everyone there was up the front having a good time in anticipation of the New Year moment. The sound throughout the room was great with clean bass and crisp highs oozing out of the speaker stacks.

Before long midnight was upon us and the crazy NYE vibe and celebrations reached boiling point. Cosmic Gate wound down the current track Fragma’s Tocas Miracle (Impetto Mix) and put on a custom production to bring in the New Year. This track was filled with elaborate pulsating effects and winding buildup sounds rolling into an electronic voice counting down from 10 to 1. As the clock struck midnight the beat dropped and crowd excitedly ran around wishing each other a “Happy New Year”! For the next 3 hours Cosmic Gate smacked down a variety of the latest trance and progressive trance tunes. They dropped a mixture of brand new releases and classic anthems some of which had been reworked with a 2007 flavour. Some of the highlight tunes they played included Cosmic Gate’s own Body Of Conflict (Vocal Mix), Vincent De Moor Fly Away (Cosmic Gate Remix), Above & Beyond Home (Cosmic Gate remix) and Maor Levi Shapes (Oliver Smith Remix), Cosmic Gate Fire Wire and Sander van Doorn Riff.

As the set finished Giuseppe Ottaviani stepped up behind his array of Apple laptops, a couple of keyboards and assorted hardware to kick off his hour and a half long live set. Ottaviani kept the ball rolling from where Cosmic Gate left off and ripped through some huge synth melodies from a number of his more well known tunes such as Linking People, Through Your Eyes, Nu NRG Dreamland, Far Away and Dolce Vita. The progression of the set was super smooth as Ottoviani linked each tune together by sequencing in each channel carefully resulting in a perfect sounding transitions. Unfortunately we did not stay to see the last half hour but all in all it was a great performance and really topped off the night.

Overall the night was a memorable one filled with quality trance tunes provided by all DJs on the night. Cosmic Gate played the highlight set in my opinion with a driving blend of uplifting trance and Giuseppe Ottaviani also delivered the goods with his beautiful synth melodies and amazing live sound. Other production in the room that should be mentioned included synchronized dancers on stage during Cosmic Gate, cool flouro tubes littering the main stage and a couple of multi colour lasers pumping from midnight all worked together to make the main room look unbelievable and create an amazing atmosphere for those on the dance floor to bring in the New Year. Hope you all had a good New Years, now bring on 2008!