Following up his 2013 TSR release ‘Meltwater’, Simon Templar - one half of Finnish duo Winkee - returns to Touchstone with another two part release. ‘To The Stars’ is trance music of the highest order. ‘Pt. 1’ sets the tone, with rich layers of arpeggiated bass, sweeping pads and a huge cascading synth riff which builds relentlessly throughout the track. Unusually for tracks of this genre, there is no traditional breakdown at all, instead Templar moves the arrangement through twists and turns, locking people in a tight groove on the dancefloor. As if that were not enough, the +10 minute colossus that is ‘Pt. II’ takes things deeper, with crunchy tribal percussion and washes of ethereal FX, crescendos of compressed pads, percussive hits and an understated lead riff. This is serious late-night, powerful, heads-down trance music.
