Image make-overs are tough in Ibiza. With so much fantastic competition amongst the clubs, if a venue slips behind it often stays there. It's no secret San Antonio's Eden had been somewhat forgotten of late amidst the virulent marketing of its superclub peers over on the east coast of the island. But things are different this summer. Eden has been taken over by new Dutch owners, and also has the backing of Booom! and IMS partner Danny Whittle. Pre season, the club was injected with new ideas, new contacts and of course new financial support and for the first time last night the public was able to see how this has come to fruition.
Eden opened on a Sunday and Sundays belong henceforth to the amiable trance loving under cover ginger, Ferry Corsten. Corsten had rolled out the big guns for his Full On Ferry opening party, enlisting Markus Schulz, Sied van Riel and John O Callaghan to join in him the brand new booth. Like many who went through the doors that night, I was keen for a little explore before I planted myself on the dancefloor. The results – Eden is looking slick. Now connected as one large room, the focal point of the club is at the far end from the entrance, where a spanking new DJ booth is set into the wall a metre or so above the dance floor. Upon entry there is a nice wide swing set into the ceiling, which I promptly leapt upon and engaged in some conservative (I felt) swinging. Bouncers weren't into it. What gives, Eden? Is this some sort of apple in the Garden of Eden metaphor? Why tempt us with a swing if we can't play on it? Looking beyond the swing fiasco, long bars line the room's edge and different spaces are marked off by curved edges. The main dancefloor in front of the DJ booth is circular, a bit like an old fashioned arena, whilst a balcony level above has a fantastic view of the DJ and birdseye of the dancers in the pit below. The tricky thing about the balcony position is resisting the urge to spit.
Eden was proudly showing off its extremely robust brand new void sound system and new lighting rigs. The sound from the middle of the dance floor had proper knock-your-toupee-off guts, but the lighting didn't quite hit the mark for me, generally staying much too bright and colourful for the heavy raving that was going down music-wise. For heavy raving it was. Markus Schulz was smashing it out like I'd not seen him do in some time. It was rowdy, boisterous trance at the dark end of the euphoria-metre, as even the gorgeous vocal tracks he threw into the rhythmic techy mix were not the sunshine and roses themed anthems that are so popular in trance currently, for example Shulz's 2012 hit ‘Nothing Without Me' filled the space with Ana Diaz' blatantly unstable stalker lyrics.
Some time after 3am Corsten joined Shulz behind the decks and the two played back to back, clearly having an absolute time of it; the energy stayed up in the rafters, peaking with their joint-production ‘Loops and Tings'. Whilst the current electro influence on trance was still present, their collaborative set was satisfyingly heavy and percussive - a purer example of trance than I've seen at other Ibiza venues lately. Corsten obviously had the freedom to go all out and if he keeps it up - and they sort out the lighting - this has the potential to be the best trance night on the island (sorry Armin, bigger isn't always better).
Whilst the back of the club (near the entrance) wasn't completely connected with the DJ antics, those in the main area and surrounds were having it in a big way. Never mind a casual fist pump, these clubbers were all out, with both hands in the air, heads back and whole body soaking up the sound waves that were roaring out of the Void at full pelt. If these clubbers go home and spread the word (or wear their new Eden branded t-shirt, enforced upon any guy who showed up in a singlet), Eden should do very well for itself this season.
Photography by James Chapman
