Click Play Now on KRANE’s Nocturnal Wonderland 2017 “Stargazing” Playlist
Nocturnal Wonderland—the final frontier. This is a playlist from DJ/producer KRANE for the festival’s 22nd anniversary. To explore new sounds. To seek out excellent vibrations. To boldly go where no raver has gone before.
For his playlist, he chose songs that pair nicely with stargazing. The official Nocturnal Wonderland camping activity happens September 14 from 8–11pm, when an astronomer and a telescope will be available to lay the cosmic heavy on you. However, as with all Insomniac camping fests, with the setting sun, there’s always an open sky for your eye. Every night. So, with wind-down moments in mind, Oakland-based astrobeaticist Zach KRANE offers up his preferred soundtrack for listening to the night sky, communing with the cosmos, relaxing, anything you might get up to… after the afterparty.
Phasers on stun: “This is a playlist that’s sort of post-festival, late-night stuff that’s got substantial, introspective mood. It’s going to sound different from most of the music we’re actually going to hear at the festival. It is genre-spanning, mellow stuff that really inspires me—whether it’s stargazing, or that long drive home after you spent your day dancing high-BPM.”
KRANE is just the type of person you would find in a field, head tilted up and trading in his time for beauty. Having gone to school for design at the University of Washington and subsequently fostering a successful career in tech, he shed everything to pursue electronic music production after discovering and growing within the SoundCloud community.
Because it made him happy.
Live long and prosper: “I’ve always been into music, and I’ve always played music. I picked up production and started making music with no intention of ever being an artist professionally. It was just for fun. I started putting music out, learning about it. After about a year-and-a-half of doing that, I had enough tracks built up that I realized there’s the actual possibility of doing this. For a good solid year I totally sucked, but I loved that, too. As a newcomer, I realized that loving ‘the suck’ has to hold hands with persistence and work ethic if you want to do what makes you happy for a living.”
Certainly KRANE has gotten well through “the suck.” With a significant body of work in his pocket, he’s been putting the finishing touches on his first LP of all-original material. “I’m totally stoked to share it at Nocturnal on a festival stage and see everyone’s reaction to hearing new tunes for the first time.” And the SoCal crowds? “Always positive and lively!”
Make it so: “This Nocturnal Wonderland playlist has nostalgia for a heart. For me, as a producer, the ‘stargaze’ or ‘drive home’ moment often happens after a long day of immersion in sound—when I’m actually sick of music. This is what I put on: music that is familiar, that relaxes and recharges me. Lorn, Burial, Mr. Carmack are all producers that I discovered early on and guided my development as a producer. The flipside is people like Sam Gellaitry, Shigeto and Janee, who are about to or have recently broken out. They remind me of the thousands of super-talented people out there that have the music. They have the skills. They’re next on deck. It helps me appreciate where I am and keeps me working hard.”
Beam me up: “When I came to electronic, I was attracted to the people that were doing things a little bit differently but pulling from things I knew—like jazz, world music, modern instrumental—bringing the familiar into an electronic construct. So it was ‘new,’ but new familiar, not new overwhelming. This is me sharing my own path to the within with you.”
So, chiggity-check this Nocturnal Wonderland playlist. And wherever you are whilst cooling your calves, warming your ears and soul, don’t forget: KRANE is right there with you.
Looking up.
You can catch KRANE doing his thing at Nocturnal Wonderland 2017, which takes place Friday, September 15, and Saturday, September 16, at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, CA. Tickets are on sale now. For more information, visit the official website.
Follow KRANE on Facebook | Twitter | SoundCloud | Instagram
