Oxia

Trance architecture for large spaces

The sound of Astrix is recognized by a mix of physical drive, soaring melody, and clean sound design: a large-format psytrance that preserves the pulse of the Israeli underground scene, but designed to cut through festivals, beaches, clubs, and open-air dance floors. His way of building tension relies on firm kicks, elastic basslines, psychedelic layers, and a sense of controlled euphoria that has made his sets a reference for several generations of trance audiences.

From Tel Aviv to the global psytrance circuit

Born in the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia and raised in Tel Aviv, Avi Shmailov started as a DJ in 1995 playing alternative music and sounds from the eighties. Contact with trance parties shifted his creative axis, and in 1997 he began recording music in a home studio under the name Astrix. His first steps were linked to nitzhonot and Goa trance, but he soon oriented his production toward a more robust, melodic, and functional language. Signing with HOMmega Productions and the album Eye to Eye in 2002 put him on the international map; Artcore in 2004 reinforced that identity of precise, expansive, and direct full-on psytrance.

Anthems, charts, and a high-pressure aesthetic

During the following decade, Astrix consolidated a discography marked by tracks like Coolio, Sahara, Deep Jungle Walk, Adhana with Vini Vici, and Universo with Rising Dust. Releases like Future Music, Red Means Distortion, and He.art expanded his reach beyond the psychedelic core, while his compilations and Trance for Nations sessions maintained a constant connection with DJ culture. His rise in the DJ Mag Top 100, reaching 18th place in 2007, reflected an unusual popularity for a psytrance artist with underground roots.

Shamanic Tales and side projects

The creation of Shamanic Tales reinforced his role as a curator and platform for contemporary psychedelic music. At the same time, Astrix has developed side projects like Alpha Portal with Ace Ventura and Moonclipse with Omri Sasi, in addition to collaborating or crossing paths with names like Infected Mushroom, Tristan, Ritmo, Vertical Mode, Guy J, Freedom Fighters, Rising Dust, and Charlotte de Witte, whom he remixed on High Street. In the booth, his career includes stages like EDC, Burning Man, Tomorrowland, OZORA, Universo Paralello, Boom Festival, Ministry of Sound, Brixton Academy, O2 Arena, Pacha, and Privilege. Today, Astrix occupies a central place in global psytrance: not as a relic of an era, but as a producer and DJ capable of keeping the genre in a state of pressure, massive scale, and emotional trance.