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Perfect Stranger Takes a Leap of Faith With His New Album

Reported by Tom Cypher / Submitted 04-10-12 08:42

For any involved in the international trance scene the name Perfect Stranger will conjure up many incredible dance floor moments. For those not familiar with the name he is simply on of the most accomplished progressive trance producers on the planet. With a sound that is revered by producers and party-goers alike, his 2008 album ‘Free Cloud’ was a game-changer for the trance scene, intricately weaving techno with progressive and psy-trance to deliver one of the scene’s most impressive albums of recent years.

Now he returns with his third studio album ‘Leap of Faith’ which is a triple CD album featuring a CD of all new material, a CD of unreleased remixes and a very special live set recorded at the Indigo Festival in Israel.

We were lucky to catch up with Yuli Fershtat AKA Perfect Stranger at his studio in his native Israel for a quick chat about the album, collaborating with his heroes and also his performance at Eclipse 2012 Festival in Australia.

This is your third full length artist album (and it's a big one) what did you set out to achieve when you first started writing it and did you plan a triple CD?

It wasn’t planned to be a triple CD bonanza to start with. Actually I wasn’t in an “album mood” at all but all of a sudden a bit more than a year ago, I figured that if I would make an album it should start NOW. So I started with the title track, but I am a type of a character that can’t do something that I just have no clue about how it going to look like, especially I needed to beat the previous one. So while working in the studio and writing original tunes/remixes, I came up with a 2 CD idea, that felt really awesome and I had some of the material ready cause I beef up my old mixes from time to time. The Live CD was the last to join the train, I don’t even remember what was the trigger, it might have been brainstorming with Shahar, the serious guy behind Perfect Stranger – I think he was nagging about something like this quite for a while. Anyway the idea came up, and Indigo folks were into it from the first moment. So that’s in short the story of how the concept was created.



Out of all three artist albums, which one has been your most difficult and why?

Without a doubt ‘Leap of Faith’, Why? Because it’s way harder to maintain your status than to reach it I guess. My previous album ‘Free Cloud’ set some seriously high expectations for me, personally and globally. Personally I don’t think that CD 1 of this album (which is the real album) beats the previous. There was something über simple in the structure of tracks on the previous album, as if they’ve written themselves and I was just present during the act, while here there was a lot of struggle.

You've collaborated with LOUD, Liquid Soul, Sun Control Species and Eat Static on the album - how did you approach these and which was your favourite to work on?

LOUD guys I know way before they released their first album some 8 years ago. We have quite a history together with collaborations remixes etc so it’s quite natural to work with them. Liquid Soul is also a dear friend - we used to travel a lot together for a few years and already wrote a track beforehand while on tour in Brazil. So while staying at Switzerland for a weekend, I told him “hey, I got here some master loop that we can tweak and it has got the potential” - the special part about it is that I had to work on Logic (best sound engine with no doubt), that I still find very un-logical but I learned a lot from this process. The track with Drew (Sun Control Species) was written in his studio in Melbourne two years ago or more, while I was on tour in Australia, and is the oldest song on the album. It was written in twelve hours and produced for two years . . . it’s really an über phat one with one of the loveliest pad sequences I ever made. Last of the bunch, Merv from Eat Static came over while he was on tour in Israel and we wrote Perfect Static, for me that was the most special collaboration to start with cause all others are my friends, and Merv is an Alien (Just kidding here) – but as one that listened to Children of the Bong/Eat Static and Ozric Tentacles, in early nineties, way before I even thought I would make electronic music it was quite a special moment to make music with the dude – and the outcome was really good as well.



Which track is the most important on this album and why?

They are ALL most important! The title track is the most important for me on this album. It has best bass synthesis I ever made, it’s just changing all the time, really cool stuff. It has also that old school Goa vibe (for me) that “does it” every time. I wish to make more songs like this one

You're playing at Eclipse 2012 festival in Australia - have you played at an eclipse party before and are you preparing a different set than usual?

I played Eclipse party in USA this year (Symbiosis) and it turns out they are partners to the Aussie one too, I think it going to be awesome! I think I will have a two hour long set (I hope) so it will be special.



You've played some truly extraordinary festivals in your career - which one stands out as the best set and why?

Very hard to name a 'best' set. There were a few really amazing moments and DJ highlights for me so far . . . Closing the Doof Festival 2006 in Israel, playing a mad psy set (after the main stage got burnt in the early morning) as BLT was one of them, I already quit the project at end of 2004 and suddenly I had gigs for two years lined up in front of me after this one. Both TAZ festivals in Israel (2006/2007) that basically changed the Israeli Trance scene to Techno orientated, something that we were in a forefront of, were phenomenal and after all this time on various stages and every party possible, recording my live for the CD before 6000 people crowd on the dance floor of last Indigo Festival in Israel was really amazing. 2010 NYE 303 Art festival in Bahia produced a serious thunder storm in the middle of the day just before I was performing and it was an amazing experience, I have this set online for download on my Sound Cloud page. All my visits to Oz are quite amazing but if I mention one probably Rainbow Serpent 2009 was the one. Glade 2008, Ozora 2012, Universo Paralello 2008 were all fantastic and there are more. That was an unfair question to ask!

What do you enjoy most about your career and if you could change one thing, what would it be?

I absolutely love travelling and playing music to people. If I could sleep more it would be a blessing.



What is next for Perfect Stranger?

Perfect Stranger is pushing hard with some remix jobs in his studio, need to create some new tunage. In one month we'll have to say bye bye to my studio and heavy travelling planned – Australia, Mauritius, France, UK, Mexico, Brazil we're gonna have a busy ending for 2012.

Many Thanks for taking the time to talk to us!

Check out Perfect Stranger’s new album ‘Leap of Faith’ HERE

Check out the Eclipse 2012 Festival HERE

Images courtesy of Omri Ezra, Toni Atias & Yuli Fershtat. Not to be reproduced without permission.
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Other Features By Tom Cypher:
Marco Scherer's Patchwork 17
Lee Mortimer goes Loopy.
My Digital Enemy
Studio Talk with Organ Donors
Essential Hardcore with Sy & Unknown
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
Comments:

From: Nikki S on 18th Oct 2012 15:07.56
Great interview!

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