The story behind Zentura
Zentura is the collaborative project of Yoni Oshrat, better known as Ace Ventura, and Wouter Thomassen of Zen Mechanics. The two producers had known each other from the progressive-psytrance circuit and initially exchanged remixes before discovering a strong studio chemistry in direct collaboration. Instead of treating the work as a one-off pairing, they gave it its own project identity.
The name Zentura allowed both artists to step slightly outside the expectations attached to their solo catalogues. Tracks such as “Digital Beings” established a sound that retained Ace Ventura’s rolling precision and Zen Mechanics’ spacious, atmospheric production, while later releases and festival appearances confirmed that the project was more than a simple credit line between two established names.
Zentura has always operated around the schedules of two busy solo careers, so its activity has naturally been intermittent. That does not make it a replacement for either parent project or imply a permanent duo schedule. Its value is in the meeting point: a focused collaboration that captures the overlap between two of progressive psytrance’s most influential modern production approaches.
Origins of Zentura
Light Mutations appeared in 2013, followed by the named Zentura identity; the exact earlier formation date is unclear.
Early career
Zentura grew from the established creative relationship between Ace Ventura and Zen Mechanics into a named collaboration project instead of merely a one-off track credit.
How the career developed
The project produced catalogue material including Light Mutations and Wun Wun and remained in festival circulation. Its output is less continuous than the members’ solo identities, so the project is time-scoped as intermittent.
Zentura sound
Progressive Psytrance combining Ace Ventura’s rolling rhythmic drive with Zen Mechanics’ spacious, atmospheric design. The result is melodic and large-scale without losing psychedelic detail.
Place in psytrance history
Zentura is significant as a named bridge between two major progressive-psychedelic artist identities, preserving a collaboration as its own project rather than burying it inside either parent discography.
Connections and influence
Related artists, labels and topics: Ace Ventura; Zen Mechanics; Iboga Records; Psytrance. Ace Ventura & Zen Mechanics joint track billing can coexist with Zentura; the specific release billing determines whether it belongs to the named project or the two artists directly.
Zentura today
Active/intermittent in 2026. Zentura (Ace Ventura & Zen Mechanics) performed at Equinox Festival Mexico in March 2026.
How the sound changed over time
Selected releases in the archive
Festival connections
Ozora Festival
O.Z.O.R.A. is a Hungarian psychedelic gathering at Dádpuszta whose modern festival history began in 2004 after the site's landmark Solipse solar-eclipse celebration in 1999.
Related projects and collaborations
Artists with overlapping styles
Captain Hook
Reshef Harari’s Israeli Psytrance project, known for deep hypnotic arrangements, analogue-minded production and a deliberate crossover between psychedelic trance and techno.
Egorythmia
Skopje producer Boban Lazovski’s progressive-psytrance project, known for combining dark melodic tension with house and techno-influenced groove.
Freedom Fighters
Shahaf Efrat’s Israeli psychedelic project, blending Progressive Psytrance with darker, techno-influenced and experimental directions.
LOUD
Haifa duo Eitan Reiter and Kobi Toledano, known for a psychedelic-trance sound that brought old-school Goa ideas, studio experimentation and cross-genre electronic production into a modern framework.
Liquid Ace
Progressive Psytrance collaboration of Ace Ventura (Yoni Oshrat) and Liquid Soul (Nicola Capobianco), active intermittently since their first joint work in 2006.
Liquid Soul
Swiss producer Nicola Capobianco’s long-running progressive Psytrance project, one of the defining acts of the Iboga Records sound and still highly active in 2026.