THE BORDERLESS SESSIONS OF CARINARNICA: WHERE ELECTRONIC MUSIC BREAKS DOWN EVERY CULTURAL BARRIER

by DENIS FURLAN

The great opening events of GO!2025 at the Transalpine Station on February 8th and May Day in the square of the same name, showed the general public the enormous power of healthy aggregation of which electronic dance music is capable.

The great European capitals teach that this current is, after almost forty years of existence, a well-rooted cultural phenomenon whose enjoyment is no longer limited to clubs, raves or festivals, but also expands to public spaces, railway stations, parks, beaches and alpine environments.

It is by nature a style that does not take root in a specific territory, but on the contrary, favors ties and collaborations between different countries, nations and continents by speaking a unique language that is that of sound in the 4/4 speaker.

From this point of view, the border of Gorizia represents the ideal point of union between the historical culture of Italian House and Techno that played a pioneering role between the late 80s and early 90s, and the increasingly fast Slovenian electronic culture, still at the forefront and home to artists esteemed all over the world.

This is the setting that inspired Denis “Did” Furlan of GrooveBox Radio, the creation of the BORDERLESS SESSIONS, or DJ sets by various particularly prominent artists from one side or the other of the border, sessions recorded and filmed physically on the border of Gorizia.

The collaboration with the Društvo Humanistov Goriške association, which manages the Carinarnica, or the old Slovenian customs barracks located on the border of S. Gabriele, has made it possible to symbolically unite the experiences mentioned at the beginning, from December 2023 in fact, on a more or less regular basis, these happenings are organized at the Carinarnica, where the recording of the DJ set (which is subsequently edited and uploaded to the YouTube channel of GrooveBox Radio), becomes a meeting point for enthusiasts, musicians, DJs and simply curious people who have never approached this phenomenon.

The first appointment in December 2023 hosted the legendary Italian DJ MARCO BELLINI, a prominent figure who brought European-style Techno sounds to North-East Italy for the first time in the mid-90s in a pre-internet era.

Subsequently, at the Carinarnica they “turned the records”: PEPI JOGARDE, one of the most influential minds of the dance music industry in Croatia, JAŠA BUŽINEL, dj, journalist and curator of important festivals such as the Ment in Ljubljana, KWASIR, producer and dj among the main exponents of the “Electro” and BAWRUT genre, born in Gorizia now permanently resident in Madrid and a well-known producer with performances in every corner of the planet behind him.

The last in chronological order of these sessions was Friday 9 May with MARCELA, fresh winner of the national Elector award in the “New Faces” category and new standard-bearer of the Croatian House scene, her DJ set has aroused the curiosity of many who have approached the Carinarnica with a bit of fear also aroused by the ever-present checkpoint, a fear mitigated and vanished thanks to the friendly and inclusive atmosphere that these happenings are able to generate, created to encourage cultural exchange between artists of various backgrounds between Italy, Slovenia and Europe in a context that was once a place-non-place and today is a symbol of cultural contamination between different arts and peoples.

GrooveBox Radio, is a Podcast on Spotify and now also a radio broadcast on the FM frequencies of Radio Fragola, which in just over two years has been able to gather around it artists and enthusiasts of all facets of Club Culture in a radius of action that starts from Trieste, embracing the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Slovenia up to Ljubljana and Croatia up to Rijeka and Pula, embracing and promoting everything that happens within these 200 km.

Every Thursday, Denis “Did” Furlan selects, collects and announces all the Techno, House, Trance, Dub and Dark events in this area, putting in the middle music tracks, interviews and specials, as well as organizing evenings in conventional and unconventional places, from the Streaming Club (TS) to the Carinarnica.