Back in the spring of 2006 Pavel Mikhailuk stayed in South Italy with his Goan friend Andrea Presa, a didgeridoo master and the Transalento project leader. There the friends agreed to meet once again in Goa next winter and work together. 
  And as the first snow covered Moscow, Pavel headed off to India again, this time accompanied by Yury Matveev – guitar, Artem Yakushenko – violin (both from the Two Siberians project), and Volodya Kachanovsky – rhythm programming, tracking, and concert audio director. The Transalento trio – with its drummer William Simone, bass player Beppe Branca, and Andrea himself – were already waiting for them there. 
The joint Russian-Italian crew performed several times in Anjuna, mostly at their own concert ground (playing on own turf always feels better), as well as at the Lilliput café. Besides, the musicians were inspired by the famous Highlight tribe band to create the natural trance music. As in the years past, Lab participants recorded gigabytes of concert and studio footage. Faster tracks (140-145 beats per minute) were later arranged, mostly by Vladimir Kachanovsky, into a six-track dance album Live Beat. There were no additional sounds and instruments added in the studio, and the tracks were just “slightly” reduced – from 30-40 minutes down to 7-8 minutes, still preserving its original sound, hence the name – Live Beat. An old friend George Brooks, whom Pavel Mikhailuk invited to Anjuna, contributed to a few tracks on the album, and even Greg Ruzo himself (of the Highlight tribe) contributed to one of the tracks (volcals, percussion, and djembe).
 
The only outdoor concert that Brooks participated in took place, traditionally, in the Bean Me Up café (God bless you, Lisa!), and it was yet again, just as it was two years ago, a true celebration of music. 
Pavel Mikhailuk: our Two Siberians, the Italian Transalento, Roei Fridman playing the darbuka, the amazing Fantuzzi – a musician, a showman, MC, and a universe in itself, well known in the festivals throughout the world. It’s a shame that this time there was no proper recorded footage of the concert.
Despite the fact that Volodya Kochanovsky was diligently recording the audio, and Philippe Hemedy was responsible for the video, it all went to waste thanks to a certain lady who appeared from nowhere. While dancing wildly, she managed to somehow damage both the audio recording with her belt which jingled rather loudly with numerous coins, and the video recording by dancing right between the camera and the stage, blocking the lens completely with her colorful body. 

Tristan 

… next to Pavel Mikhailuk’s Anjuna hut lives a distinguished trancer – DJ Tristan, one of the leading musicians of the Twisted Record trance label. Mates would often visit one another, listen to music and discuss it, and once even performed together – at  the Lab’s concert. 
PM: I invited Tristan to one of our concerts – to play the jew’s harps together. He had a very peculiar way of playing it, similar to the way Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) plays the flute: very elaborate, and with certain breathing techniques. Meeting Tristan had a great impact on my life: trance music completely got under my skin on a cellular level at one of the parties where he was playing. Trance as a way of being, the sound pulsating, magically dissolving in the air! Deep inside my heart a new style was evolving for the Goatika Creative Lab. And since, whatever it is that we do, we always strive to reach that trance vibration.

West End

In the winter of 2007 the Lab, as part of a new experiment, performed live with the Italians from the Transalento project at the West End trance party, an effort promoted by the  Timur Mamedov aka DJ XPWooDoo. 
PM: In the beginning we almost ruined everything… the thing is the stage was not set up for live performances, all the speakers are facing the DJ, and so every time we plugged everything in, the sound would be horrible. It took us two hours to fix the sound, at least to a certain degree. 

Moscow

Upon returning from Goa, Mikhailuk and Co immediately started working on the files they brought back, and there was a new addition to the sound production staff of the studio. It was the Polish Andrzej “Izi” Izdebski, a sound magician and an exciting musician that has visited Russia on many occasions with various bands. Alexander Cheparukhin introduced Izi to Mikhailuk a year prior to that. Izi has collaborated with such musicians as Pat Mastelotto, Tray Gunn, and Sergei Kurjokhin (the Pop-Mecanica projects).
In the summer of 2007 Pavel Mikhailuk and Victor Sologub head to Womad (World of music, arts and dancing) – an annual festival produced by the Real World company – this year the venue was in England, in the vicinity of a town called But. There were great atmosphere, terrific musicians, and surprising reconnections with old friends and new acquaintances including those with Peter Gabriel, Tony Levin and theReal World team. 
PM: This was the first time I got to go to a Peter Gabriel concert. Despite the bad weather there were a lot of people there that were completely immersed in the magic performance on the

stage. Peter is a great man!

Program 1. Who is Afraid. George Pusenkoff

The Goatika Creative Lab music coexists peacefully with “neighboring” art genres, a great example of which is the collaboration with artist George Pusenkoff.  
In October and November of 2007 at the Moscow Museum of Modern Arts on Ermolaevsky Lane an exhibition of Pusenkov’s work took place – a friend of the Lab, a wonderful and talented man, the only artist whose work has been to space. 
The Who is Afraid exhibition in the digital abstract style was a challenge to meditate on the future of human beings in our technical world. The Goatika Lab improvisation music illustrated that message of the artist like a soundtrack.
“We managed to create a very interesting group here,” says Pavel Mikhailuk, “violinist Artem Yakushenko, bassist Sergei Kalachev, Arkady Marto on the keyboards. We did several studio sets, and then at night arranged them together with George Pusenkoff.  The artist had his own vision of music; he wanted a “smart” background that would create a certain mood. As a result we have a peculiar abstract composition, a sound layering of sorts. This was the first time that the Lab worked together with an artist. George is a very interesting person and we had a lot of fun!"

Program 2. LABotomy. George Brooks and Pete Lockett

The team that successfully created the soundtrack for Pusenkov’s exhibition had a live performance at the Moscow Forte club. September brought about the news that George Brooks would be coming to Moscow for the first time; together with a famous British multi-percussionist and teacher Pete Lockett, that has played and recorded with musicians like Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Bjork, Pet Shop Boys, and many many others.
Art rehearsals were to precede the performance – Marto, Yakushenko, Kalachev, and Mikhailuk would gather at the Aprelevka studio to create the “style base” for meeting with the guests. Later two studio sets took place at that same studio with everyone present, and only then did the musicians perform at the capital city bar Forte. The people who were at the concert remember it as being very warm and hearty. Of course we could not let Brooks and Lockett go without showing them the Moscow and St. Petersburg landmarks. 


Program 3. LEVItation. Tony Levin

In September 2007, the compiled footage from Goa was delivered to maestro Tony Levin, a world famous musician that records and performs with almost all the art rock stars (and not only them). Tony agreed to work together with Goatika and participated in the recording of a new album; and then on December 7, at the Moscow B2 club, the Lab presented the LEVItation performance. 
Besides the maestro, several musicians performed that night – the didgeridoo master Jovis Bubrowski, Artem Yakushenko (electric violin, mandolin), Sergei Klevenski (winds), Boris Nazarov (percussion programming, special effects), Jagannat (tabla), Evgenia Tedjetova (vocals), and Pavel Mikhailuk (didgeridoo, jew’s harp, vocals). Just like before, the team rehearsed for the concert at the Aprelevka studio for several days, in order to present a new kind of sound to the sophisticated Moscow audience. 
Two musicians from a unique Tuva band Huun-Huur-Tu were the guest performers that night.
We would like to say special thanks to our friends and partners - Alexander Lvovsky and Alexander Cheparukhin (of Green Wave Music) – for organizing Tony’s visit and concert at the B2 club. 
PM: Looking back at the year 2007 I can say that we have never had such a time of fruitful and intense cooperation with a wonderful international team of musicians! I am happy and I am proud to have had the opportunity to work with such amazing people! Thank you all, and God bless you! Now the processing of all the studio and live footage is on the agenda. As we make progress we will gladly share it with you, dear lovers of music!