Osiris Indriya and yvette Soler seem like unlikely business partners. Osiris comes from the underground arts community. A world filled with visionary art, spirituality and magick. yvette is closer to mainstream. She’s worked at a radio station, recording studio, CD pressing plant, and several technology companies. Two things bring them together, a love for artistic expression through music and art and a desire to share that with others. From that desire to share was born IOSIS Art Parties.
The original idea came to Osiris when he was working at a club as the Talent and Music Director. He was playing his favorite progressive and trance music from Europe for the owners and expressed a desire to bring those artists to Seattle. At the same time, he started collaborating with episode13 (www.e13.ca) in Canada about sharing the expense of bringing those DJs from Europe to play in Seattle and Vancouver, BC. With the connections from the crew in Canada, they were able to secure DJ Banel from Iboga Records in Denmark (www.iboga.dk). The first event was scheduled for February 18th; IOSIS was born.
Where did the name IOSIS come from, and what does it mean? “IOSIS is the final stage in the alchemical transformation”, says Osiris. Often times, names evoke the beginning of a process. ”I thought it would be really beautiful to evoke the image of the end of a process, to focus on celebrating the final stage of transformation.”
With the talent secured, the planning for the first IOSIS event was progressing when disaster struck. Through a series of unfortunate events, Seattle lost its venue. With only two weeks before the show, Osiris turned to his manager and business partner yvette to ask for advice. Once he expressed his vision for making the Northwest part of the global progressive and trance scene, she was sold. She took over the logistical matters and working with Osiris they were able to quickly secure a venue and print up promotional materials. Quoting Osiris, “Music from labels like Iboga have integrity. We felt it was important to share DJ Banel and his music with people locally and throughout the Northwest and be part of the growing progressive and trance movement around the world.”
Given that they had only two weeks to promote and the venue was out of the way in the South part of Seattle, the first IOSIS event could be considered a success. About 100 people came out to watch DJ Banel and a group of West Coast DJs from the US and Canada. Since the event was held at a former art gallery and they had two rooms of music to decorate, yvette thought that it would be interesting if instead of using traditional dance party decorations - black walls, tapestries, candles… they instead used art in the downtempo/chill room. For many years there has been an intense focus on visionary art in the underground dance music scene, especially having artists like David Heskin (www.newskinstudio.com) paint during the actual show. Since Osiris was a visual artist himself, it felt natural to decorate the big white walls with works by Osiris and David.
After the show, yvette and Osiris realized that they really liked the way the art gallery room played out, with brighter lights and sultry music. They decided that instead of having two rooms at the next event, they would split the night, but keep it in one room. And this is where the Art Party concept was truly born. Evolving from the original vision of bringing international progressive and trance music, art was incorporated into the theme.
So what exactly is an Art Party? An Art Party combines an Art viewing and dance Party in one night; It is an opportunity to meld underground and mainstream culture through music and art. Pulsating beats, inspirational sights, scrumptious treats, and visions through light… put them all together and you get IOSIS Art Party, the finest international progressive and trance music and fine art.
”People who go out and look at art are more likely to come early. They want to be able to experience the art in a beautiful setting with some food and chill music. Those that just want to experience a full-on party environment go out late. With IOSIS, we can give them both.”
For the April IOSIS Art Party, they decided to scale back and focus on giving to their existing community. This event was the re-launch party for the series. ”This is where we revealed the IOSIS Art Party format: one room, one sound system, Art viewing with catering from 8-10pm followed by a progressive and trance dance Party from 10pm-4am.” Not deviating from the original vision of incorporating music from outside of Seattle, they had International DJs Phoenix Olivia from Vancouver, BC, and Kevin Hills from LA, and local DJs Osiris and Lady*miss*Athena. The art was also well rounded with Julia Mullikin showing her digital art, photography by Kevin Hills and paintings by Osiris.
Now that you’ve launched the series, what’s next? yvette explains, ”The next event in May is where we continue the final phase of transformation and show more of what we are becoming.” They went back to Iboga Records and are bringing Martin Zimmerman from Beat Bizarre in Denmark. They just release their new album ’Summersault Industries‘ which has been very well received globally. To round out the sound, they will also have local DJs Chloe and Chronus to bridge between the underground and mainstream. Artistically they have a much wider range of fine art this time. ”We have more space to work with, so we have a glass sculptor, Norm Dibble, three painters - Daniel Michael Viox, Dari Stolzoff, Jerod Knapp - and a digital artist, Osiris Indriya.” Once again catering will be provided by Living Paradise and visuals by Porchlight | *.
Why should you come to IOSIS Art Party? IOSIS Art Parties are an opportunity to come together to express and experience in an open space; a chance to celebrate the best local, national and global artists and musicians. The goal is to create a more inclusive community, to not have belief systems and dogma in the way. ”Let the art and music draw people together. If people connect on spiritual levels, it is because the individuals wanted it rather than the event required it,” feels Osiris. ”I see it generating a community of people that are drawn from the mainstream and underground. Creating a scene that doesn’t exist right now“, says yvette. All ages and types are welcome. Some people will only come for art; some only for music; some will come for one and stay for the other.
Osiris tells us, “The interesting thing about IOSIS is that it‚s relatively open minded on the art - paintings, digital art, sculpture, photography, installations, performance art - offering a wide variety instead of just one medium. Yet, musically we’ve decided to focus on progressive and trance exclusively.”
yvette and Osiris are excited about the future of IOSIS Art Parties. This is their chance to give back to the community. Quoting yvette “Long term I want to inspire and move people. I want to think about things in ways I never did before and I want others to experience that feeling. We have the opportunity to present the world in new, creative and different ways. I believe that the more people are exposed to differences, the more open they become.”
More important than anything else, we want people to make a new connection. The hope is that IOSIS Art Party will give them that opportunity.
