Enhanced Sessions celebrates 700 episodes with live 3 hour special from London 💥
Founded in 2008 by Will Holland, London-based label Enhanced Music is a powerhouse in the world of trance and progressive. With an abundance of records dropping weekly across their various sub labels, like many imprints throughout the scene, Enhanced launched their own weekly radio show as a platform to showcase their new releases and select records from around the genre. Last Friday, Enhanced Sessions hit a new milestone, celebrating 700 episodes of the show, and hosted their first ever live studio special to mark the occasion.
A weekly feature here on Electric Radio – every Thursday night at 12am – Enhanced Sessions has seen its popularity grow exponentially since expanding to a 2-hour format in 2020. Hosted by Enhanced Progressive staple Farius, the label radio show has continued to welcome the biggest and best from the progressive and trance world each week for an exclusive guest mix to go alongside the latest releases, with headline guests including Cosmic Gate, Gabriel & Dresden, Ferry Corsten, and many more.
With almost fifteen years of the label, and the radio show, it seemed fitting that celebrating 700 episodes of Enhanced Sessions would mark their biggest milestone yet. To commemorate the show, Enhanced descended on Basing House in London to bring a three hour live special from their own pop-up radio studio, with special guests, unreleased music, and a captivated live audience.
Kicking off with an introduction from host Farius, the 180 minute celebration rolled into action with a string of new releases across the Enhanced labels – Progressive, Recordings, and Colorize – including the Boxer remix of Sound Quelle & 88Birds’ ‘Wonderland’, Marcus Santoro and Darla Jade’s ‘Hit & Run’, and the long-awaited ‘Relight’ by Johan Vilborg. Ahead of the first special guest appearance, Farius continued in standard Enhanced Session fashion with his A&R Pick: the one record that deserves an extra spotlight ahead of it’s release the following week. Such a big episode required a stellar pick, and it got exactly that. A mammoth collaboration between Boom Jinx, Einar K, Nitrous Oxide, and Vintage & Morelli titled ‘Breathing’ was revealed as the coveted ID from Farius’ ASOT 1000 set, and marked the ES700 A&R Pick.
Up next, the maiden special guest appearance of the night came from French DJ and producer Matt Fax, who graced the energetic crowd with firm favourites like ‘Energy’ and ‘Close My Eyes’, his recent release ‘Underwater’ with x.o.anne, and a few unreleased treats from his forthcoming album on his Chromattic label. Following a short interview where Fax discusses the album, Estiva bestowed his progressive side as he took to the decks under his Kudus outfit, and commanded the Basing House attendees with the likes of ‘Select Player Mode’, ‘Fluor’, and the rapturous ‘Never Be Alone’, much to the delight of Farius.
After the progressive tones of Kudus came a familiar name to the Enhanced Sessions faithful in the form of Anjunabeats regular Oliver Smith, as the UK-based progressive trance heavyweight came searing in with favourites, old and new, from the Anjuna catalogue. The crowd were also treated to a few exclusives as Smith shared – during his interview with Farius – that the long-awaited Ilan Bluestone collaboration ‘Blue Eagle’, and a debut artist album were both on the horizon and would be landing soon, much to the delight of those present and listening live on YouTube.
Rounding out such a celebration could only be one act, as label co-owners Tritonal landed from Austin, Texas to deliver a blistering set to the Basing House onlookers. ‘Out Of The Dark’, ‘Something Beautiful’, and ‘Superhuman’ were just some of the staple records featured in their dominating set, and provided the perfect penultimate set for the 700th episode of their label’s radio show. After chatting with the duo about their newly unveiled alias PRAANA, and what’s on the horizon for Tritonal, Farius rounded out this monumental night with a few more selections of his own, signing off the three hour spectacular with a forthcoming ID on the label.
With Enhanced Sessions 700 marking a new height for the long-standing radio show, all eyes are now surely on the next milestone – Enhanced Sessions 750 – and what might be on the cards for Farius and the team as they continue to take the progressive and trance mainstay to greater levels than ever before.
