What has trance music taught us this year ? We will do this through a story of these twelve months
For Trance History, talking about rankings means delving into what we like most. But as we well know, every ranking is always a personal choice and like last year, we will try to describe this year with a series of key moments that have led certain songs to become icons of this 2023. It’s always difficult to determine which track could be the number one of the year, and Armin van Buuren and his special episode will think about this in a few days of A State Of Trance with the ranking of the best 50 trance records determined by the votes of its fans. The radio show studio will become the center of the world for a few hours for all trance music fans.
This 2023, in any case, has confirmed the trend, into trance music scene, of strong influences from the new trend of progressive music and techno music: more and more often, producers are rediscovering historical records, proposing new captivating versions or taking up the style of the music trance from the 90s or early 2000s to compose new hits.
The year began precisely due to the great anticipation of A State Of Trance Reflexion in Utrecht, the post ASOT 1000 postponed. We are in February and in the rooms of Jaarbeurs what will be a hit, yet another remake, of Armada will be re-proposed several times, we are talking about Adagio For Strings by Ben Nicky & Distorted Dreams a powerful hard trance / techno track with acid sounds accompanies the central melody that was remain at the top of the main charts for some time as an echo of this genre which is now being revived a lot by producers.
Speaking the remakes of classics trance records, two others this year stood out on the dance floors and in the charts: the techno-trance version of the legendary Silence by Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan by Andrew Rayel & Achilles and the captivating progressive-trance remix of 1998 of Binary Finary, edited by Victor Ruiz, which remained at the top of the Beatport Trance chart for a long time.
But the third month of the year was also the period of yet another iconic remix by Armin van Buuren, Transmission by Eelke Kleijn is very simple, a few very catchy turns of notes and the best of the pure trance sound of the beginning of the millennium by the genius of Leiden.
Those who never miss the call are Above & Beyond, omnipresents, every time with a new specialty, Tranquility Base Vol.1 is the first part of a new project that will continue, in the meantime this EP is divided between April and May, with five instrumental tracks: Angry JP8, an authentic progressive-trance bomb with a chorus that will make anyone jump; VLEKNO, a hypnotic track that progresses towards a crazy ending, Wasp, the classic refined piano of Above & Beyond followed by an exciting trance rhythm; 500, the track created to celebrate ABGT500 in Los Angeles on October 15, 2022 and finally Spin-Off, a beautiful track that fully represents the current and nostalgic sound of the English trance trio.
Returning to the remakes of historical tracks, the one we will mention now had already been circulating for many months and struggled to see an official release, the great enthusiasm of the fans pushed Aly & Fila to release their version of Leben … I Feel You by Schiller with Heppner. Here we heard a practically perfect trance remix, a trance chorus that perfectly follows the original, spine-chilling melody, goosebumps !
The magical keyboards of the Italian master Giuseppe Ottaviani give us in July, together with Ilan Bluestone, Futuro, one of the best works released on A State Of Trance in recent months, a hypnotic refrain marks the beginning of summer. August was perhaps the most interesting month of the year, full of impressive releases: the first one, an exceptional remix by Matt Fax of the famous track by The Blizzard, Kalopsia from 2007, really impressed us, with its magical and captivating sound; in the same month, after many hype, was finally released a masterful Anjunabeats collaboration: Other Eye by Gabriel & Dresden vs. Andrew Bayer and the vocals of Sub Teal, it’s the perfect combination between the legendary melodic sound of the San Francisco duo and the electronic trance genius of Andrew Bayer, the result is a formidable progressive-trance track.
Finally, Armin again who writes a new chapter with Space Case: played for the first time during the celebration weekend in Utrecht in March, the king of trance simply wanted to express with this track, his love for the trance music of latest part of 90s with a hard/techno trance sound, giving us a space journey that will be remembered for a long time; also during his Saturday DJ set in Jaarbeurs Utrecht, Armin won us over with another bomb Maddix‘s techno-trance remix of his Computer Take Over The World, released in September.
Remaining on the A State Of Trance tema, Armin and his team have worked hard this year to give us two very strong anthems: the first one, for the 2023 edition of A State Of Trance, released a year ago, with Cosmic Gate, called REFLEXION and already during this summer, with great anticipation, the ASOT boss showed us with a special live broadcast, the composition of the new anthem for the upcoming 2024 edition of the radioshow: DESTINATION, written in collaboration with Ruben de Ronde, Ferry Corsten and Rank 1, has become one of the most played and iconic trance track of recent months !
Among the most exciting collaborations of 2023, Aly & Fila again but with Alex M.O.R.P.H. deserve a mention: in Eye Of The Storm all the uplifting potential of the Egyptian duo and the legendary German producer come together, with a fantastic uplifting bassline and an melody, exalted especially in the vocal of Cheryl Barnes, which recalls many successes memorable by M.O.R.P.H.: this will certainly be memorable too.