1.Prologue

In this series so far I’ve covered disco, house and techno, progressive house and other types of electronic dance music. Until “EDM" broke into the mainstream in the 2010s, electronic dance music was comprised of many different, largely underground scenes, each with a passionate international community of believers. Throughout the second half of the 90s and 2000s the most recognized and commercially successful of these genres was trance music. While the U.S. remained an exception, trance music was widely recognized in the U.K., across continental Europe and Asia. It most cases local scenes were based around large outdoor trance parties called raves.

What is trance music? Simply put, it is music that puts the listener in a trance state through the repetition of (four-on-the-floor) rhythm and beautiful melodies. While house music and techno was music you felt with your body—music that elevated you through dance—trance was music you felt with your brain or your heart. The combination of music and drugs was meant to move you emotionally. Drug culture, naturally, was part and parcel of the psychedelic trance sound. Just as the psychedelic rock of the late 60s was meant to recreate or enhance an acid trip, trance music recreates or enhances ecstasy. Raves were the ideal environment to embark on drug-aided spiritual journeys.

Generally speaking, there are two types of trance. Epic trance (a term used mostly in Japan) developed in Europe and has strong classical music influences; psychedelic trance developed on the beaches of Goa in India, and has strong ethnic/world music influences. Both types developed roughly concurrently in the late 80s and early 90s. Both are also umbrella terms that encompass many subgenres. In the 90s, DJs like Paul Oakenfold helped spread trance music across Europe and around the world. That included Japan, where a sizeable trance and rave scene remains to this day.

Over the next three articles, I will cover trance music and rave culture. In this article, we begin with the epic trance that developed in Europe.

2.The Dawn of Trance

In MUSIC & PARTIES #033, I wrote about German techno trailblazer Sven Väth. In the early 90s, Väth’s sound was actually closer to trance. His debut album Accident in Paradise is a masterful blend of ambient music and trance elements.

The German DJs/producers of the early 90s took the inorganic sounds of Detroit techno and added melodies and harmonies—elements of classical music—to give it a warmer, organic feel. Sven Väth frequently employed musicians to play live instruments to make the music that was being released on his trance-leaning label Eye Q and his techno-leaning label Harthouse. As he saw it, he was a DJ, not a musician, and it was important to have live musicians to make his musical vision a reality. However, by the late 90s, the commercialization of trance meant that DJs were increasingly seeing themselves as musicians—producing their own sounds using computer software instead of musical instruments. (A record producer is someone who manages the production of a sound recording. In the DJ world, however, a producer is simply someone who makes music themselves.)

Many of the artists that pioneered the trance sound in this period came out of Germany.. The duo Dance 2 Trance released “We Came in Peace" in 1990, one of the seminal releases of early trance. The endlessly repeating bass line is a perfect example of the type of sound that was designed to bring about a trance state.

One of the members of Dance 2 Trance was also involved in a different duo called Jam & Spoon, one of the best-known names of classic trance. Their 1992 track “The Age of Love(Jam & Spoon Watch Out For Stella Mix)" features female vocals that evoke both a church choir and a new age retreat, and became one of the most remixed tracks in trance history. The same year they also released a track called “Stella", which comes to life with synth pads and faux-Spanish guitar—both staples of the early Balearic sound of epic trance.

The trance sound was also being developed in other parts of Europe. The U.K. acid house band the KLF released a track called “What Time Is Love?(Pure Trance 1" in 1988, which is considered by many to be trance and rave’s first true anthem. New versions were released as singles in both 1990 and 1991.

In 1995, Italian producer Robert Miles released a track called “Children". The classical piano and strings draw the listener into the dream world.

In 1996, U.K. producer Chicane released a track called “Offshore", one of the best examples of the emotional power that a trance track can have.

These early trance pioneers would pave the wave for the giants of epic trance to rise to fame in the late 90s.

3.Epic Trance Giants from the Netherlands, Germany, and the U.K.

Germany’s biggest epic trance DJ is Paul Van Dyk. Van Dyk was raised in East Germany, and secretly listened to Western radio stations because there were no record stores around where he could buy music. Shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Van Dyk and his mother were allowed to leave East Germany and move to Hamburg. In 1990, he moved to Berlin, and made his first appearance as a DJ at the legendary techno club Tresor in March 1991. His made his breakthrough with his 1998 single “For An Angel", which is considered a trance classic. He later started his own label, Vandit, and traveled the world as a trance DJ. In 2005 and 2006, he was named No.1 DJ in DJ Magazine’s annual list of the world’s top 100 DJs.

From the mid-nineties onwards, the Netherlands became the epicenter of epic trance. The holy trinity of Dutch trance is Ferry Corsten, Tiësto, and Armin van Buuren.

Ferry Corsten is one of the founders of Dutch trance. He made his debut on the U.K. singles chart with his single “Don’t be Afraid", released under the name Moonman. His breakthrough hit was his 1998 single "Out of the Blue", released under the name System F. Since the 2000s, he has released solo albums while supporting up-and-coming trance artists on his label, Flashover Recordings, and his weekly radio show, “Corsten’s Countdown". His melodic and uplifting sound is often called "uplifting trance" or "euphoric trance."

Tiesto is a DJ/producer that has been called the “God of Trance” and the “Godfather of EDM”. He started producing music around 1994, and started his own label, Black Hole Recordings, in 1997. In 1998, he achieved worldwide fame with Ferry Corsten with a series of tracks released under the name Gouryella. At the end of the 90s he began to focus on solo work, and by the early 2000s he was playing “solo concerts” in front of large crowds at stadiums across continental Europe. Between 2002 and 2004, he was named No. 1 DJ by DJ Magazine three years in a row. In 2004, he played at the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Athens—a first for a DJ. In the 2010s he became a fixture in Las Vegas, and shifted from trance to an EDM-oriented sound. In 2014, Forbes magazine named him the world’s highest-paid DJ, reflecting his status as the most recognizable face of EDM worldwide. Since 1999, he has an ongoing series of trance mix albums called In Search of Sunrise.

With Tiesto now firmly part of the EDM camp, the biggest name in Dutch trance has become Armin Van Buuren. While Ferry Corsten is known for uplifting melodies and Tiesto is known for mainstream appeal, Van Buuren is especially known for his vocal trance tracks. In 2000 he started a compilation album series called A State of Trance in order to showcase those vocal trance tracks and other trance on his label, Armada. In 2001, he launched a two-hour radio show of the same name that is said to be broadcast over more than 100 radio stations around the world to more than 40 million listeners a week. Van Buuren was named the world’s No.1 DJ by DJ Magazine in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012.

The U.K. also became a center of the epic trance scene in the late 90s,. One of the biggest names to rise out of this group is the trio Above & Beyond, which formed in 2000. While the group does perform DJ sets, Tony McGuiness, Jono Grant, and Paavo Siljamäki are songwriters at heart, and it shows in their music. They’ve collaborated with many vocalists and much of their music has crossover pop potential. They’ve also released albums featuring acoustic renditions of their best songs, and even an ambient album meant for meditation. Check out the track “Air for Life" for their epic trance sound, and “On a Good Day" for a taste of their pop-leaning vocal trance.

●Recommended picks from the giants of epic trance

Paul Van Dyk – In Between

Volume: The Best of Paul Van Dyk

Ferry Corsten – Right of Way

Ferry Corsten – Twice in a Blue Moon

DJ Tiesto – In Search of Sunrise

DJ Tiesto – In Search of Sunrise 3: Panama

Armin Van Buuren – Balance

A State of Trance 2020

Above & Beyond – Group Therapy

Anjunabeats Volume 14

4.Progressive Trance and Tech Trance

As the trance sound developed in the 90s, so did the progressive trance subgenre, which sits somewhere along the spectrum between house and trance alongside progressive house—which I covered in MUSIC & PARTIES #032. Sasha and John Digweed are known today as progressive house DJs, but in the 90s their sound was more trance-leaning, best encapsulated in tracks like Bedrock’s “Heaven Scent". While trance is all about repetition, progressive trance is more about a journey.

The American producer BT is also an important figure in the progressive trance of the second half of the 90s. BT started playing classical piano at an early age and studied composition and theory at the Washington Conservatory of Music. He attended the Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz before dropping out to pursue a career in music. After a failed start in L.A., he moved back home to Maryland, where he started Deep Dish Records with friends Dubfire and Sharam. His early work caught the ear of DJs like Sasha and Paul Oakenfold, who took him under their wings. In 1995, BT released his first album, Ima, from Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto label, which helped spread the progressive house sound. BT continues to release electronic music that spans pop, ambient, breakbeat, electronica, and more.

In Germany, producers combining trance and techno gave rise to the tech trance subgenre, characterized by a deeper, darker sound compared to the euphoric, glittery vibe of epic trance. Some well known tech trance tracks include “Simulated" by Marco V, and “Renegade" by Sander Van Doorn.

The German DJ Markus Schulz is known for his blend of vocal trance, progressive trance, and tech trance. He was born in Germany but moved to the U.S. in his teens. He made a name for himself in the dance music scene with remixes for pop artists like Madonna and Jewel in the 90s. In the 2000s he started his own label, Coldharbour Recordings, as well as a radio show, the Global DJ Broadcast, through which he champions a deeper, darker trance sound that has garnered him the nickname “unicorn slayer”. DJ Times magazine named him America’s No. 1 DJ in 2012, 2014, and 2018.

●Progressive Trance Picks

BT - Ima

BT – These Hopeful Machines

BT – Electronic Opus

In Search of Sunrise 15

Markus Schulz – Do You Dream?

Dakota – Thoughts Become Things II

5.Epilogue

From this basic survey of the epic trance that developed out of Europe, one trend becomes clear: as trance evolved, the elements of black music (disco, soul, funk, etc.) that had been part and parcel of house and techno music were gradually filtered out in favor of influences from traditional European music—that is, classical music—and the computer music that had developed in Germany and Japan in the 70s.

This is, in essence, the same phenomenon that led to the development of progressive rock in the late 60s and early 70s. After American rock music was imported into the U.K., progressive rock artists in the U.K. and around Europe gradually began to reduce the blues and R&B influences in favor of the pomp and grandeur of classical music. It’s easy to see why German party animal Sven Vath would focus on more edgy techno sounds as trance became more commercial in the mid-to-late 90s.

The U.K.—historically, linguistically, as well as geographically—has always been more connected and exposed to American culture than the rest of Europe. What’s more, the U.K. was home to a sizable immigrant population from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. These minorities gave rise to the U.K.’s own brand of black music: hip hop, trip hop, and jungle/drum ‘n’ bass. Meanwhile, in continental Europe, the classical music tradition remained strong, and minorities were treated as invisible. The euro disco sound pioneered by the Italian composer Giorgio Moroder is the perfect example of black music being reinterpreted for white European audiences. All of these factors made countries like Germany and the Netherlands ripe for a trance invasion.

Epic trance also had an outsize impact on the Japanese music scene. From the early 90s the record label Avex Trax repackaged euro disco as “eurobeat” to market it to Japanese audiences; with epic trance it repackaged it as “cybertrance” to entice a younger generation of listeners.

In the 90s, Avex artists, led by the so called Komuro Family—artists like TRF, Globe, Shinohara Ryoko, Kahara Tomomi, and Amuro Namie, who were produced by Komuro Tetsuya (*35)—took the J-POP charts by storm, selling millions of records and making European dance music the sound of a generation—even if the consumers themselves weren’t aware of it. Avex and Komuro also ran a disco/nightclub called Velfarre in Nishi-Azabu, which served as a trance stronghold.

By the mid-90s, Komuro-produced artists accounted for the majority of Avex’s profits, and tension began to grow between Komuro and Avex head Max Matsuura. Matsuura took the know-how he had observed through Komuro’s sucess and focused his energy on producing an act of his own: Hamasaki Ayumi. Rising to fame in the late 90s, Hamasaki became the Queen of J-POP in the 2000s, as well as a fashion icon among gyaru, a women’s fashion subculture characterized by over-the-top imitations of American teenage culture. In other words, Hamasaki became Japan’s answer to Madonna. Her music is a blend of dance pop with trance influences.

Another important relic of the Japanese “eurobeat”/trance scene is para-para, a synchronized dance for clubs and raves that involves mostly upper body movements—a product of the fast tempo of trance music. Para-para developed among women who were regulars at high-end Japanese discos like Juliana’s Tokyo and Maharaja, and became a way to attract more female clubgoers—specifically, gyaru. Hamasaki Ayumi was first introduced to Max Matsuura at Velfarre. As the rave scene grew around the world in the mid-to-late 90s, so did the consumption of ecstasy (MDMA). Ecstasy also made its way into Japan, where it was available in the form of colorful tablets resembling supplements and vitamins. Drug use spread among minors as well as the women who frequented these clubs, and the entire underground drug industry was perpetuated by organized criminal groups, who sought to milk the club scene for all that it was worth. Drug trouble would eventually lead the Japanese government to start cracking down on clubs and raves starting around the mid 2000s. While trance music had brought about the golden age of the Japanese club scene, it also brought with it drug culture, which would ultimately bring about the scene’s decline.

In my next article I will cover goa trance and psychedelic trance.