What trance music has given their fans this year, according to us at Trance History
The 2022 of music will be remembered mainly for the definitive year of the post-covid rebirth. The goal to be achieved in these last 365 days was to bring fans and people back to live music. Almost all the musical schedules have returned as well as the enthusiasm of the people, who have been abstinent from live music for far too long.
The past year in terms of musical releases was as always so varied, complex and with some final doubts, Trance History will try to make a judgment also for this 2022. In our opinion, music in general in recent months has been affected of “reflexion” of the post-pandemic situation combined with the worries of the war: this has led artists globally to meditate longer on their projects, probably preferring to propose them later.We have also felt this sensation in the music genre that is closest to our hearts, but this has not deprived us of discovering and listening to some noteworthy songs in any case.
Once again the most successful artists of the last 20 years have been able to tell the trend of the genre very well with new musical releases, starting with the master Armin van Buuren, who this year gave us the release of two of the three studio albums called Feel Again: as usual for some years, these are albums in which different musical genres are collected as well as trance.
A small mention should be made for Above & Beyond who at the beginning of this year gave us the release of a highly anticipated song, Gratitude born from the collaboration with Aname and Marty Longstaff, an intense and exciting work between between progressive trance and progressive breaks. There was also a strong collaboration with their friend Mat Zo for Always Do and the release of their classic progressive track always with Longstaff, Chains.
The journey of MOSAIIK continued for Cosmic Gate who this year proposed three massive songs (We Got The Fire, Follow You Anywhere and Hear Me Out) in their well-established aggressive and energetic style and recognizable. The songs will be contained in the second part of their album with a planned release for 2023.
One of the major authors of the year, who really impressed us by knowing how to combine the current uplifting trance style with classic trance atmospheres, was undoubtedly Ben Gold. His album Rest Of Our Lives from which seven singles were extracted, Xtravaganza, Same Sky Same Stars with Plumb, Take Me Away, Searching (For A Kinder Love), Liberation, Nostalgia and the homonymous Rest Of Our Lives, the latter, in our opinion, was the best trance record of 2022 (and #2 in A State Of Trance Top 50 Countdown for the Tune Of The Year 2022 during the last episode of ASOT radioshow).
Speaking of relevant albums, the particular year of Ciaran McAuley also deserves a mention, his work Permission To Exhale has released 10 singles, we like to remember the work together with Roger Shah, You And I, in collaboration with Hannah Brine.
Of the Armada releases and in particular A State Of Trance and FSOE, we like to recall the past twelve months of these three producers who have made so many captivating releases: RUB!K (Outbound, Orbit 17, Alpha-45 with Corti Organ, Love In My Heart, Voices From Earth, Luna and Beside Me with Mark Sixma.), Ahmed Helmy (Afterlife, R4VE 101, Something Inside) and Ahmed Romel (Serene, and Lost In Love with Christina Novelli).
Citations of merit also for Richard Durand who has proved unstoppable in recent years: his Ballad Of The Southern Sea with an epic trance sound is undoubtedly among the best tranck of this 2022.
Paul van Dyk and Aly & Fila together composed the anthem for the spectacular SHINE event in Ibiza and the track that bears the name of the event was one of the most played tracks of last summer.
HALIENE, from the album Heavenly, with the support of Markus Schulz, has given us a very strong mash-up, Butterfly Metamorphosis is among the most emotional trance songs heard this year.
We conclude with the producer that A State Of Trance listeners have decided to award with Tune Of The Year 2022, we are talking about Bryan Kearney and his Take This which brings Plumb‘s voice back up again, on a song by Out Of The Dust.