Down through the electronic ages, across the grand span of progressive and trance imprints, a special level of reverence is reserved for the name Bonzai Records. Renowned as the label birthplace of many of the twinned genres’ track & producer greats, its delivered the celebrated, scene-seizing likes of ‘Universal Nation’, ‘The First Rebirth’, ‘Sunrise At Palamos’, ‘Silver Bath’ and dozens upon dozens of others. All but synonymous with artists like M.I.K.E./Push, Plastic Boy & Yves De Ruyter, Bonzai has also been the enduring home to the incomparable talent that is Laurent Christian Georges Véronnez… better yet known as Airwave.

This summer, Bonzai Progressive – now the label group’s foremost imprint - are proud to present the first in a major new mix-compilation series. Taking the controls for the ‘001’ of ‘In The Mix - Progressive Sessions’ is that man Laurent.

Drawing on a professional lifetime of enthralling clubbers and at-home music lovers, Airwave brings his unique sonic blend to its first release. In doing so, he unites 30 current & upfront tracks that reside in the ever-porous nexus of trance, techno, house and (naturally!) progressive. Among them are productions & remixes from the greats - Solarstone, Sean Tyas, Art of Trance, Robert Nickson and others, as well as newer talents like Alex Di Stefano, Gai Barone, Rick Pier O Neil, Matt Holiday and many more besides.

Airwave is a producer whose music, over a near-20-year career, has had press, DJs and fans drawing on words like “pioneer”; adjectives like “hypnotizing” & “mesmerizing” and reaching for phrases like “ahead of his time”. He now brings all of those qualities together to deliver two extraordinary mixes, making up the release of the first of the ‘In The Mix - Progressive Sessions’ series.

The Sunrise mix of ‘Cerulean Sky’ by UK/USA duo We Are All Astronauts opens Mix1 up wide. W.A.A.A.’s radiant vocal loops & FX cede to progressive don Moshic’s ether-steeped ‘A Lie Has No Legs’, the beachfront atmospherica of ‘Bayside Drive’ by Altek and the description-says-it-all Deep And Dark version of Airwave’s just-released ‘A Touch Of Grace’. The shrouded tones of Napalm & D-Phrag’s ‘That Evil Twin’ and Audio Noir’s ‘Spaghetti Western’ meanwhile score the first mix’s midsection deep. The humid trance-tropics of Nico Parisi’s ‘Settimana’ signal a tempo gearshift, as the mix builds, culminating with Gai Barone reworking of Solarstone’s alchemic ‘Nothing But Chemistry Here’.

‘Progressive’ in name certainly, but in actuality ‘Sessions’ second mix expands the album’s style universe far further. With Part .1 travelling the netherworlds of dark-tech & deeper, more atmospheric house, the second extends further into deep & psy-ish trance. Following the cooler strains of opener ‘A Story Tale’ from D.P.Kash’, it shifts into recent comeback kid Robert Nickson’s ‘Stars’, the pumping ‘Dactylion’ from Matt Holliday and the subterranean frisson of Sean Tyas’ ‘9am’. Further in, Alex Di Stefano again demonstrates his techno inclinations on ‘Dark Purple’, before Laurent works in (the exclusively featured) Rick Pier O’Neil remix of Art Of Trance’s ‘Before The Storm’. Keeping the trance Fahrenheit every bit as high are Reaky’s ‘Never Say Never Again’ and the labyrinthine thunder of ‘You Were Always There’ by Chris Oblivion, which close out the album.

Music for those that are prepped to take that one step further down the wormhole, ‘In The Mix 001 - Progressive Sessions – Mixed By Airwave’ is out now.