Ace Ventura

Biography

Ace Ventura is the main Psytrance project of Israeli producer and DJ Yoni Oshrat. Oshrat grew up around professional music through his father, composer Kobi Oshrat, and started DJing when he was young, long before Psytrance became his principal style. His route into the scene came through club music and increasingly trance-oriented selections, followed by production and a growing involvement in Israel’s psychedelic circuit. The Ace Ventura project became established in the 2000s and was closely associated with the progressive side of Psytrance: lower-slung groove, strong bass movement, long transitions and a preference for sustained hypnosis over constant melodic peaks.

The debut album Rebirth appeared in 2007, followed by the remix-focused Re:Boot and, later, Paradise Engineering in 2015. Across that period Oshrat developed a style capable of moving between progressive restraint and harder festival energy without losing its rhythmic character. Collaboration is central to the project. Ace Ventura has worked with a large cross-section of the scene and has also built distinct duo identities around particular musical relationships. Alpha Portal with Astrix explores a harder, more futuristic sound; Alien Art with Captain Hook moves into heavily textured, analogue-influenced psychedelia; Liquid Ace with Liquid Soul emphasizes the progressive side; and Acid Punks with Outsiders provides another separate collaborative outlet.

Oshrat also co-founded Psy-Nation with Liquid Soul, combining a radio/podcast platform with events and scene curation. DJing has always been as important to Ace Ventura's career as his own productions. Instead of treating festival sets only as short showcases of recent productions, he has repeatedly emphasized extended sets that can travel through different tempos and shades of psychedelic music. That approach, alongside his collaborative output, has made Ace Ventura a connective figure between progressive Psytrance, modern festival Psytrance and the wider history of trance DJ culture.

Origins of Ace Ventura

Yoni Oshrat was exposed to studio and performance culture from childhood and began DJing as a teenager. His early sets moved through club music, techno and trance before psychedelic parties redirected his focus. The Ace Ventura name also has a family connection: Ventura was the Oshrat family surname before his father changed it, giving the project name a personal meaning beyond the film character with which it is often associated.

Early career

Before Ace Ventura, Oshrat was involved in the Israeli electronic scene and gained experience as both DJ and producer. The solo project took shape during the 2000s as progressive Psytrance was becoming a major international strand. Rebirth (2007) established the project with a sound that was muscular enough for large systems but noticeably groovier and more patient than the fastest Full-On of the period.

How the career developed

The Rebirth era was followed by Re:Boot and years of singles and collaborations before Paradise Engineering (2015). Instead of relying on frequent solo albums, Oshrat built much of his later releases through collaborations and parallel projects. Psy-Nation with Liquid Soul added a curatorial and community dimension, while Alpha Portal, Alien Art, Liquid Ace and Acid Punks each developed a distinct identity instead of functioning as simple aliases.

Ace Ventura sound

Progressive Psytrance is the core reference point, but Ace Ventura’s music spans a wider psychedelic range. Typical productions use heavy rolling bass, carefully paced percussion, restrained melodic motifs and effects that accumulate over long sections. His DJ sets can move from deeper progressive material into faster and more forceful Psytrance, and his separate “in dub” work shows a longstanding interest in dub, ambient and downtempo music.

Place in psytrance history

Ace Ventura helped make progressive Psytrance a central festival language , not a niche alternative to Full-On. His career is also significant for the way it is built around collaboration: instead of absorbing every partnership into the solo brand, he has repeatedly created separate projects with their own musical logic and audience.

Connections and influence

Key related projects include Alpha Portal, Alien Art, Liquid Ace and Acid Punks. Psy-Nation links Ace Ventura directly with Liquid Soul and with scene curation beyond record releases. His long-set approach also connects modern Psytrance performance with an older DJ tradition based on narrative pacing rather than short headline showcases.

Ace Ventura today

Active. Ace Ventura released new music and performed extensively in 2026, including Ozora Festival, while continuing work through Mutant Disco Records and Psy-Nation.

How the sound changed over time

Selected releases in the archive

Festival connections

Related projects and collaborations

Artists with overlapping styles