Discovering they were very much on the same wavelength, Anton and Gianluigi joined forces on a mission to persuade foreign DJs to come and play on Indonesia's vibrant club scene. Gianluigi, a French-speaking Swiss expat, wasted no time in contacting DJ Gregory, sought-after star of the Parisian night, and invited him to get behind the turntables at a club in Djakarta.

"We soon discovered that there was a real enthusiasm for the project," DJ Anton remembers, "Clubbers, who were principally listening to Anglo-Saxon stuff at the time, wanted to find out more about the French Touch." Fuelled by this local curiosity, Anton and Gianluigi organised the first edition of Junction in 2005, staging the event in Bali, the jewel in Indonesia's tourist crown. "Bali was an obvious choice," explains Gianluigi, "The island's managed to preserve its own culture without closing itself to foreign influences. Bali's always been a fantastic melting-pot."

The first ever Junction festival, staged on Bali's golden beaches and the island's hippest clubs, revolved around two French artists – DJ Gregory and DJ Matt'Samo – and two local Indonesian stars. The electro happening attracted a major turn-out (almost 2,000 people including Balinese and Indonesian clubbers as well as tourists), leading its organisers to look to the future. "We decided to make Junction an annual fixture," says Gianluigi, who managed to find a dozen sponsors to finance the festival's second edition. Junction was originally dreamt up as a Franco-Indonesian turntable fest, but by 2006 the event had acquired an international dimension. While Francophone DJs (Gregory, Matt'Samo, Michell and Mandrax) were still in the majority, this summer they shared the decks with Nicolas Matar (from New York), Kaori (from Japan), Niina (from Sweden) and three local Indonesian talents: Anton, Hogi and Deep Sound Community.

The three-day festival took place in the swankiest joints around town with the aptly-named Sunset Parties taking place on the private beach belonging to the luxury Tugu Hotel, the Night Events being staged at two of Bali's leading discotheques, the Ku De Ta and the Hu'Bar, and clubbers mellowing out at After Hours at the more underground club F Lounge. Needless to say, local clubbers turned out to all three events in force. Santi, an Indonesian electro fan from Djakarta, said this was her second time at Junction and added "I'll definitely be back next year." Meanwhile, Santi's Australian fiancé, dressed in an impressively sweat-stained shirt, enthused about the festival line-up. "It's incredible to see so many DJs playing together on the island!" he said.

The artists involved with Junction 2006 were equally impressed. DJ Michell said he was "happy to have helped so many people enjoy themselves" on the dancefloor and vowed he'd be back again next year, too. "This has made me want to work miles away from a Paris recording studio," he said, "Now I'm keen to see what sort of impact a tropical Asian environment could have on my music." Matt'Samo already has a step ahead of his compatriot here, having experimented with traditional Balinese music for the past couple of years. "There's a mystical dimension to it and that's something I find very interesting," he says, explaining how his driving syncopated beats revolve around the "initiatory journeys of Hinduism." Festival co-founder Gianluigi, who is intent on getting all the DJs involved in Junction into the same studio together, now has his eye on greater things. "Junction's not just a simple music festival," he says, "It's also intended to be a building of artistic bridges between the West and the Far East!"

Josselin Grange
Translation : Julie  Street