And finally…ENTER. arrived at Space Ibiza. One of the most hotly anticipated and talked-about parties this summer, ENTER. - Richie Hawtin’s first solo residency – fused perfectly with the already established and respected underground party Kehakuma. Working in perfect symbiosis, both events delivered a unique experience to Space’s dance floor and brought expertly together the areas built on the principles of music, sake, technology and experience. Technology surprised clubbers as they were greeted at the entrance by a screen with moving black dots on it. In reality, there was a Kinect camera on top of the projector installation that detected people’s distances with its depth sensor. When people came closer to the camera, their body's outline appeared on the projection and black dot particles appeared from their body's outline. This movement and shape changed constantly by a generative computer program. Not far from there, long swaying jellyfish like creatures hung from the ceiling, constantly changing colours and drawing in intrigued clubbers. Made of thread, people could activate and control them through proximity sensors inside the columns, which altered the sound and light in a variety of ways in real-time.
The ENTER. logo, a black circle, was ubiquitous at the party - on peoples bodies as a tattoo or on t-shirts worn by many during the night.
The party started early with a very intimate 2 hour set by Dubfire at El Salon from 10pm to 12am. The small room had being transformed for the pre-party into a Sake bar, one of Richie Hawtin’s passions, complete with delicious Sake cocktails and a deep, pulsating sound that rippled through the zone.
A couple of hours later, as people poured through the doors desperate to dance to the rhythm, Kehakuma’s long-standing resident Nick Curly started playing around 2:30am at the Terrace. Go-gos were dressed in oriental-style dresses, luring clubbers into following their moves.
The night’s energy crawled into every soul on the biggest dance floor of the club which was virtually almost full. You could feel the crowd’s vibe – their only wish was clear: to dance. The atmosphere was exultant; every single person seemed to be moving. It was almost impossible not to. As Paco Osuna, Gaiser and Hobo took command of the Discoteca everything fell into place too. Specially customized with new structural lighting installations and technologies, on each side of the DJ booth you could see the silhouettes of a dancer, hidden behind a white circle. On the Terrace, Kehakuma’s DJs Radio Slave, an incredible Barem (that somehow managed to attract people from the Discoteca), Remo and again, Nick Curly played much to everyone’s delight. As is common at Kehakuma, intricate visuals were being projected on the room’s stone walls, accompanying the music of all DJs and adding even more depth to an already multi-layered experience. The atmosphere was ecstatic by the time Berlin-based Magda put an end to the night on the Terrace with a minimal set at 6am. But people were far from done, moving as a collective group towards the music that was being played by Richie in the Discoteca. The closing time was getting nearer but people were far from done and demanded more from him: more energy, more beats, more music. He didn’t let the crowd down and played an uplifting set until the very last second. He was greeted all night with thousands of hands in the air. To accompany the moment, Space’s magnificent sounds speakers were up to the task of delivering the very finest electronic music.
The only place where the pace was slower but perfect to relax was upstairs on ENTER.Air (Premier Etage) with the softer tunes being played by Daniel Miller and Seth Hodder.
No-one wanted the night to end. We’re sad it did. We’re already getting ready for next week.
ENTER. and Kehakuma has just begun.