On Friday March 15th, Ozmozis Productions hosted Italian Producer and Musician Giuseppe Ottaviani at Toika Lounge for his first appearance in Toronto since 2010.
Having just been to Toika for the first time a couple of weeks prior, I knew exactly what to expect from the venue this time around. I was thoroughly impressed previously with the entire night and was seriously looking forward to coming back again to see Giuseppe Ottaviani. When I arrived at 11:30pm with friends, Toika was already half jammed. Judging by all of the social media attention and enthusiasm from Toronto Trance fans, I knew it was going to be a very busy night and expectations of a larger crowd were high for this greatly anticipated event. The atmosphere was buzzing the minute we walked in with Mr. Morton on the decks doing what he does best, spinning a high energy opening set. With the raw talent that he portrays, the crowd was having an amazing time well before Giuseppe was set to play. Spinning until almost 1:00am, Mr. Morton had a jam packed house thoroughly impressed with his set, and brought the temperature of Toika up to an unspeakable level… I knew we were in for a very hot and sweaty night before Ottaviani even started his show. Every person that I talked to could not contain their excitement on how much they were looking forward to hearing Giuseppe live, many for the first time, myself included.
For those who are not familiar with Ottaviani, he began studying piano at the age of 4 in Viterbo, a small Italian town near Rome. After attending music school in his early childhood and studying classical music as a teen, he discovered electronic music. He started to play his first DJ sets at clubs and on local radio stations in 1995 and later began to use his computer to produce his own music. He met DJs Andrea Ribeca and Giacomo Miccichè in 1999, and they decided to start the music project NU NRG (pronounced ‘New Energy’); the group began releasing tracks on Producer Paul Van Dyk’s label Vandit Records in 2001. Giuseppe left NU NRG in 2005 to pursue a solo career. He released his first artist album titled ‘GO’ in 2009, and his first compilation album ‘GO ON AIR’ was released in 2011. Most of his tracks are released on Vandit Records working alongside Paul Van Dyk for a few collaborations as well. Giuseppe remains both contemporary and omnipresent in the scene with recent productions like Falcons, Arcobaleno and most recently Lost For Words continuing to win trance hearts and minds. Ottaviani is currently focused on the recording of his second artist album, slated for release sometime in 2013. Expanding his GO legacy further, Giuseppe launched his own radio show Go On Air which was originally aired once a month. Due to popular demand it is now currently aired every Friday on AH.FM with an iTunes podcast available to download as well.
If anyone has had the privilege of listening to him speak about his music, you will know that Giuseppe does not consider himself a DJ, he’s a musician. Giuseppe prefers to play a live set over a DJ set – he does not use CD mixers; he uses live MIDI controllers, 2 laptops and 2 keyboards to perform for his audience. On Friday night, we were fortunate enough to witness the beauty of a live set. With the amount of wild energy there was inside Toika, I’m sure it was easy for him to feed off of all the great vibes and put together a set that will be in our memories for a very long time. He opened his two hour set with his newest track Lost For Words and let me tell you, hearing this live rendered me speechless. There is so much beauty in that track and respectively in Amba Shepherd’s voice, to make it a perfect selection for an opening tune. Setting the tone for an amazing set, Giuseppe followed it with another beautiful vocal track, Toys which features another key voice in Trance music, Betsie Larkin. Playing massive track after track, everyone was dancing so hard that the entire club seemed drenched in sweat, not a single person left dry. Continuing to blow our minds he played his own remix of Lost In Berlin by Paul Van Dyk, his original mix of Earthbeat and another heart stopper Falcons produced by Solarstone and Giuseppe. Not slowing down by any means, Giuseppe played another recent track of Paul Van Dyk’s I Don’t Deserve You, followed by an epic Armin Van Buuren mash up of Burned With Desire vs. Ride The Wave. Giuseppe’s unbelievable set was capped off with his newest remix of Armin Van Buuren’s brand new track This Is What It Feels Like, and with a smile on his face he ended the most incredible two-hour live set I have ever witnessed. A night of nothing but pure trance music and sheer satisfaction, I’m sure I speak for almost everyone in attendance when I say; I hope we can experience another live set like that from Giuseppe Ottaviani very soon. A big thank you to Ozmosis Productions for putting together yet another mind blowing event, and also to Resident DJ Mr. Morton who never fails to impress me with his amazing sets.
If you missed Giuseppe, here is a partial tracklist of his set:
Lost for Words – Giuseppe Ottaviani Feat. Amba Shepherd
Toys (Club mix) – Giuseppe Ottaviani & Betsie Larkin
State of Soul (Maarten De Jong remix) – Andrea Mazza & Max Denoise
Angel – Giuseppe Ottaviani
Lost In Berlin (Giuseppe Ottaviani remix) – Paul Van Dyk Feat. Michelle Leonard
Earthbeat – Giuseppe Ottaviani
Falcons (Giuseppe Ottaviani Onair mix) – Solarstone with Giuseppe Ottaviani
I Don’t Deserve You (Giuseppe Ottaviani remix) – Paul Van Dyk Feat. Plumb
Burned with Desire vs. Ride The Wave (Armin Van Buuren mash up) – Armin Van Buuren vs. Giuseppe Ottaviani & John O’ Callaghan
This Is What It Feels Like (Giuseppe Ottaviani remix) – Armin Van Buuren Feat. Trevor Guthrie
Links:
Monika Sobota – EDM TOR
