The 7th Gate by Lory aka Archaic

Midnight passes and you turn onto Solomou 30 in Exarchia, where the door is open and nobody is checking names. The bass reaches you before you reach the stairs, low and insistent, pulling from somewhere beneath the street.

Lory — also known as Archaic — is one of the first DJs in Greece to play electronic music, starting in the punk explosion of the 1980s before falling into psychedelic trance in the early 1990s when the genre had no name in Athens. Under the Archaic project, he released his debut album Wildness on the English label Wildthings Records in 2008, followed by Sonic Driving in 2011, both exploring deep, cosmic, forest-inflected psytrance with shamanistic rhythms. He also produces downtempo material under the name Avaris. The 7th Gate is his night at IT Athens, presented through Pulse Tribe Kollektiv — the collective that uses IT as its home base and has built a following through events that move between clubs, warehouses, and outdoor spaces across the city.

The crowd at IT Athens on a Pulse Tribe night arrives knowing what the room is for. You will find people who followed this collective through venue changes, people who recognize Archaic from open-air festivals and want to hear what his sound does in a 250-person basement, and Exarchia regulars who treat IT as their neighborhood club. The energy is communal rather than performative — people face the DJ, not each other.

| Aspect | Details | |--------|---------| | **Setting** | Basement club, ~250 capacity, Solomou 30, Exarchia | | **Vibe** | Hypnotic, communal, alternative — Exarchia's contribution to electronic music | | **Sound** | Psychedelic trance, deep forest atmospheres, shamanistic rhythms | | **Door** | Relaxed — no dress code, no guest list scrutiny |

The night opens at midnight and builds through layers of psychedelic territory. Archaic's sets move the way his albums move — starting with deep, cosmic textures, then thickening into rhythmic patterns that work on the body before the mind registers the shift. The forest atmospheres he is known for translate differently in a basement: the ceiling is low enough that the sound wraps rather than disperses, and the room's small footprint means the bass reaches every corner equally. By 2am the floor has found a collective rhythm and the transitions between tracks are felt rather than heard.

If you want peak-time bangers and a room that peaks early and crashes by 3am, IT Athens operates on a slower arc — the music is designed for endurance, and the rewards come in the third and fourth hour. But if you want psychedelic trance played by one of the DJs who brought the genre to Greece, in a room small enough that the sound surrounds you instead of washing over you, Solomou 30 is the door.

IT Athens is at Solomou 30 in Exarchia, a twelve-minute walk from Omonoia or Panepistimio metro. Entry runs approximately eight to fifteen euros. The metro will not be running when this event starts or ends, so plan for a taxi or a late walk through Exarchia, where the streets stay populated well past dawn. The door is relaxed — come as you are.

A DJ who helped introduce psychedelic trance to Greece three decades ago, playing a room that holds 250 people in the neighborhood where Athens' alternative culture still lives.