What happened in the last twelve months ? We try to summarize it for you, beyond the lists
There is no longer a year that does not have something to tell for our trance music. 2024 has been for many insiders, the year of reconfirmations. We have already discussed how for some time, the effect of nostalgia has brought the “old” hard trance genre back into the limelight, which however, modified to the current trend, is repositioned as techno music. Based on this musical trend, as last 2023, we have been experiencing for some time a classic “twinning” between techno producers and progressive trance producers who exalt classic trance symphonies: the final result, the most evident one, can be seen during live shows and large stages where it’s possible to listen a unique harmony of all these styles within a single DJ set.
Just under a year ago, Armin van Buuren gave an example of this trend, with his A State Of Trance DESTINATION at Ahoy Rotterdam, he definitively decided to open the doors of his show to various DJs who naturally play the techno genre: a trend that will be repeated next year with the new A State Of Trance TRANSFORMATION in Rotterdam on February 21st and 22nd, already announced with a line-up (not yet complete) but already full of amazing artists between trance, techno and progressive About musical releases, it has been a very interesting twelve months and has seen, here too, several reconfirmations. In recent days, on our Instagram page, we have released a special Top25 drawn up with the intent of summarizing which were the trance and progressive records that were most representative the year, for us.
Outside of any classification, the first name that needs to be mentioned is that of Ferry Corsten: in absolute terms the best producer of the year who throughout 2024 has released his album new album month by month with several singles: Connect is one of his best albums of his career in a musical concept that has presented collaborations of various kinds of the highest level, going from enhancing his more rave/breaks side, to the progressive experiment up to classic trance. (above all: Fulfillment with Marsh, Where The Mountains Grow with Chris Howard and Remember with Superstrings, but clearly the whole album is worth it).
Let’s open the Armin van Buuren chapter: the question that arises spontaneously every year is how he manages to produce such a high number of releases and all of them of the highest quality, so we have to deal with this reality once again; trance, progressive, classic trance, techno-trance, progressive house: everything has passed through his hands again this year, gathering the applause of any kind of audience thanks also to the numerous collaborations, so let’s try to summarize the year of the king of A State Of Trance (but sure to forget something in any case !) starting from an giant collaboration that thrilled fans even before it was released: What Took You So Long, with Gryffin, has combined the energy of Dutch trance music with that nostalgic touch that recalls the Eurodance of the mid-90s; behind this excellent work also names of international producers such as Jake Torrey, Madison Love and Toby Gad.
Retracing this 90s nostalgia, again at the beginning of the year, Armin released, with the Germans VIZE and Leony, the “racy” City Lights, which thanks to that piano riff smells of that magical dream music we grew up with.
Presented at Ahoy Rotterdam during his DJ sets, it’s impossible not to mention two important collaborations that, each in their own way, have paid homage to this wave of love towards the techno-trance genre, we are clearly talking about Now Love Will Begin with Oliver Heldens’s alias HI-LO and again with Hardwell (the first time in 2015 with Off The Hook), with Follow The Light: and who has managed to stay still with two records like that this year ?!
In 2024, Armin van Buuren has also touched on that trend that has been attracting a lot of attention in electronic music in recent years, called “melodic techno”, but transforming it in his own way, with two further massive collaborations: the first one, with ART BAT, who together signed the dazzling Take Off and towards the end of the summer, the explosive and much-loved Love Is Eternity with the Italians Agents Of Time and ORKID.
About of summer: the mind clearly flies to Ibiza and what better tribute than Armin van Buuren to celebrate it with a perfect song ? The progressive-balearic rhythm of Es Vedrà accompanied many of his shows at Ushuaïa this summer and not only there. From the heart of summer, a track has practically made us dream for months and was released just a week ago: Armin van Buuren and Natalie Gioia had never collaborated before but at Ultra Europe in July something had not gone unnoticed: an incredible lyrical symphony sung in Italian followed by a brutal trance rhythm are the ingredients of one of the most beautiful trance tracks of 2024: Viva L’Opera.
Although not strictly trance, finally (but in any case, accompanied by a prodigious trance remix later) we absolutely must mention the collaboration between Armin van Buuren and David Guetta: the two names, among the most important in the electronic music scene ever, have finally joined forces in 2024, producing the catchy In The Dark.
Returning to the other artists, we know well that the uplifting genre always occupies a prominent place in the end-of-year charts but, in general, in a large portion of releases that are appreciated by fans: it is more difficult to understand which songs have truly been loved by the public of specialized fans (the special Top50 of A State Of Trance on air on Saturday 21 December will take care better of this) as the labels on which these records are released are numerous and the fans who follow them are less “mainstream” and the consequence is that many of these tracks go unnoticed by the general public; however, we can name some tracks that have certainly already made history in this 2024.
Clearly, Aly & Fila always prove to be at the top of the preferences, releasing three new songs in this 2024, all three highly appreciated by fans: Count On Me with Philippe El Sisi, Omar Sherif and Jaren, The Unknown with Lostly and the expected collaboration with Richard Durand for Nebula. We expect that these tracks to arrive very high in other charts between now and the end of the year.
For a few years now, the name of some female song writers and vocalists has always been at the top of the absolute preferences of fans and it seems that this year too is no exception: Bo Bruce (last year #3 in A State Of Trance Top50 with Bryan Kearney with Shine A Light) has signed together with another undisputed trance icon of these years, Ben Gold, the very powerful Half Light, which already seems like a great classic of vocal uplifting trance that fans cannot miss and that we expect to be very high elsewhere too (#4 in our special Top25).
It was certainly also the year of reconfirmation for Hel:slowed who with their progressive sound have carved out an important personal profile, demonstrating that Misja’s experience and Michael’s talent create something magnificent; but above all it was the year of the Dutch duo once again paired with Amber Revival: A synergy that for us is writing a significant page in the history of the progressive-trance genre: last year they left us a track, If You Only Knew, an authentic progressive jewel (number #5 of the Tune Of The Year 2023 of A State Of Trance) that has already become a great classic. Wildfire, this year’s single, driven by the enthusiasm received the year before, immediately thrilled fans enchanted by the combination of Netta and Ari’s voices, combined once again with an elegant progressive rhythm: We celebrated Wildfire by placing it at #1 in our Top 25:
As we said, trance and techno have mixed a lot this year and there are many examples: it would have been enough to attend one of Nifra‘s powerful DJ sets to understand what we are talking about: Pull Me In with EKE for example, is one of the classic examples, one of the most powerful tracks of this 2024, like the incredible Techno Is My Only Drug by David Forbes: also worthy of mention, Orjan Nilsen and Mark Sixma with their project nilsix, who during the course of 2024, in the wake of their new remix of XIING by Orjan Nilsen (2013), released at the end of last year, have continued on this musical trend, signing incredible tracks with a refined techno-trance rhythm, Fired Up for example or the latest, Bring Back The Techno, released a few days ago: a title, a program !
In the wake of the techno-trance genre, John Askew has released one of the most interesting albums of the whole 2024 after many years from the last release of one of his albums: A Room Full Of Pros & Cons is not a collection of tracks but should be listened to as a single work attributable to the entire insane career of the UK dj and producer:
Two cases, which combine classic from 90s and current techno music, have characterized the sound of this 2024 and which have shown themselves well in the popularity charts and in many playlists and is the result of the work of two women: the first one, now an icon of modern techno, Charlotte de Witte, remixed at the beginning of the year the legendary Universal Nation by M.I.K.E. Push (1999), practically canceling the differences between the techno and trance genres, in a rework that we greatly appreciated. KI/KI, instead, has brilliantly remixed Felix‘s famous Don’t You Want Me (1992) in a fast techno-trance version that has remained firmly at the top of the Beatport charts for months.
Unmissable also this year, of course, Paavo, Jono and Tony: coming from a busy 2023, in which the event to celebrate the ABGT550 was deliberately skipped, this year they delighted us with the release of a track that had been played for the first time during the ABGT500 celebrations in Los Angeles two years ago: the enchanting Crazy Love with Zoë Johnston is clearly one of the most beautiful and beloved vocal trance records of this year. Finally, on December 6th the Vol. 2 of Tranquily Base EP was released, a new collection (the first part came out last year) in which Above & Beyond tried their hand at trance, techno and progressive breaks rhythm, with five strictly instrumental tracks. But beware: an incredible 2025 is upon us for the most beloved trance trio ever, something we had already tasted during their DJ sets in Mexico City last October for the ABGT600.
Overseas, Gareth Emery’s LSR/CITY project continued to rack up big numbers with its incredible shows, coupled with new releases. Although we were already excited about some of them (KILLSHOT, for example), the London producer released, in our opinion, one of the best trance track of this year practically at the end: we’re talking about without u with Anabel, which is very reminiscent of his famous records that have studded the story of trance music in recent years: perhaps, we wonder: it shoul have come out earlier ?