Astrix

Astrix is the stage name of Avi Shmailov, born in Georgia in the former USSR to a Mountain Jewish family and raised in Tel Aviv. He began DJing in 1995, playing alternative and 1980s music, and started producing under the Astrix name in 1997 after being introduced to trance at a party.

His music helped define the melodic, high-BPM strain of psytrance that emerged from Israel, built on rolling basslines, layered acid leads and long, tightly structured builds. He signed to HOMmega Productions in 2002 for his debut album Eye to Eye, followed by Artcore in 2004, then Nu-clear Visions of Israel, Psychedelic Academy, Astrix & Friends and, in 2010, Red Means Distortion.

He placed 41st in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs poll in 2006 and climbed to 18th the following year, one of several Israeli producers to register on the list. In 2009 his album One Step Ahead was released on USB flash drive, and he has toured almost continuously since, remaining one of the more widely booked names in psytrance internationally; his DJ sets keep to the same relentless forward momentum as his studio work.