The Synths of Energy 52's Monumental Cafe Del Mar

US Roland Super JV, Nord Lead, and Juno 6 in action 03/08/22

Cafe Del mar is one of the most memorable and instantly recognisable trance songs of the late 1990s - often referred to as the most iconic trance track of that era - with many people agreeing the Three n One mix to be the ultimate version. Here is Three N One aka Andre Strasser playing the track in his studio with the original gear sequenced in Logic.

In the video, he plays the track back, making some tweaks along the way and demonstrating the hardware synths in action. Amongst the gear is a Roland Super JV, Akai S3000, Nordlead, Juno 6, and EMU Orbit. It's incredible to see something like this (originally uploaded by the producer himself) breaking down a monumentally influential piece of dance music history into its composite parts.

Here is the full track in all it's glory:

Incidentally, did you know the original is a cover of a classical piece called Struggle for Pleasure" by Belgian composer Wim Mertens? Here it is:

Here is the muzikxpress explanation of how the track was originally made:

There is an equally euphoric ambient mix of the track by Michael Woods for those wanting something more laid back:

There is also a chiptune song which covers the above piece, can anyone tell me what it is??

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.