Nestled among trees at the base of a mountain in the Barite area, the festival site is chosen for its natural beauty. Camping sites are available to rent by attendees looking for a complete outdoor experience.

Techno enthusiasts and nature lovers alike can catch performances by tINI, Cally plus Romanian legend Raresh amongst others. The bill also sees festival favorites and residents returning to the site.

“After the break we decided to take in 2020, the need for a proper experience connecting music and nature is stronger than ever,” reads a statement on their event page. “This year our hearts are full of bliss, because Festival in the Nature is definitely happening. The forest, the musical delights and the people around you are going to create together a whole chapter of stories worth telling long after everything is over.”

The festival’s Facebook page describes it as “…a special place. A place, where you can go … and grow, musically and spiritually. A mystical place, at the foot of the mountain, where beautiful music, art, and nature combine, to give you the climax of pure happiness.”

Stewardship of the environment is a focus for the event and guests are encouraged to bring reusable cups to cut down on plastic waste. It’s essential that visitors “treat the forest like home,” as the event page states, and return the area to its natural state after the festivities are done.

Tickets are available through event.gg. Pictures from past events can be found on the festival’s Instagram page.

“Can I Turn Too,” features the hallmarks of the Bay Area-born artist’s trademark sound. It opens with a tuned-down soul sample, almost foreboding, and all at once, a sultry wall of Rhodes offers a stark juxtaposition that doesn’t feel out of place in a year like 2020. “Can I Turn Too” is really a marriage of the deep house cuts that brought her into production and the more hard-edged Berlin sound that she’s picked up while living there. The synths and bass line are bright and airy, but the beats are heavy and throbbing.

Lady Blacktronika’s music runs through waves of darkness and light. It’s music indicative of a life that has been met with intense joy and extraordinary heartache and austerity. She was born and raised in San Jose, California, and throughout her life, she has experienced periods of drug addiction, homelessness, and prostitution. Through it all, her music was a solace.

In the late 90’s Lady Blacktronika got her start lending her vocals to numerous house records that never saw the light of day. After years of feeling left out of the writing process, her own smoothed-out deep house cuts were discovered by Mike Huckaby on MySpace, and he introduced her to the world in 2007.

“Can I Turn Too” and the entire Drum Control EP are available via BandCamp.

Minimal techno mainstay Terrence Dixon has released his latest, a space-inspired album titled Galactic Halo on Axis Records. The effort marks his first extensive release since 2019’s Vertical Hold EP. Despite Dixon’s purported departure from the world of producing 2014, he’s continued to release at a heavy clip.

The eight-track work travels an expanse of modulated soundscapes and deep, pumping beats.  At times it escapes into the avant-garde yet remains strongly rooted in the minimal techno sound that has become his calling card. Dixon continues his dedication to the art form. He has long been a steadfast proponent of Detroit’s legacy in techno, and he remains one of the few artists that continues to find new ways to pay homage to the genre’s roots.

Detroit Strong

The somewhat reclusive Terrence Dixon has been a pillar in Detroit’s scene since the early ’90s. Describing his music as deeply personal and inspired by his environment, he helped shape the more minimal techno sound with his first release in 1994 on Utensil Records.

While many of his contemporaries have been vocal about their contributions to dance music culture, Dixon prefers to let his music speak for itself. He rarely interacts the press, and his social media presence is scant at best. When you consider the fact that he’s regularly released music for nearly 25 years, it’s clear that he does in fact have much to say.

You can purchase Galactic Halo via the Axis Records website. It is available as a digital download in both the full album and as singles.