Taking a Moment to Trance...

It’s crazy how far the genre has come but at the same time, how fairly new it is compared to other music genres. Some of my favorite sets have been trance sets. Above & Beyond, Armin van Buuren and Markus Schulz are just some sets I’ve been fortunate enough to experience live and they definitely left an impression. Since that was the case with me it is no surprise to hear that the 1000th episode of ASOT (A State of Trance) reached over 50 million listeners in over 121 countries. Trance music will see an all-time high in 2021. With the upcoming ASOT events announced in September celebrating the 1000th episode, ASOT1000 Festival will be the largest Trance festival in the world.

Trance music was born during the early 1990’s in Germany. It came at a time when Techno and House Music were dominating the EDM scene. Trance’s long melodic build ups and use of vocals brought a change to the scene that was used to the off-beat percussion sounds of house music and the fast, repetitive, often distorted beats of techno. Trance would eventually branch out into various sub-genres like acid trance, progressive trance, uplifting trance, vocal trance and hardstyle. ASOT is not the only Trance festival, the genre has also led to the creation of Dreamstate and Group Therapy Weekender at the Gorge.

One of my favorite Trance moments was Above and Beyond at Beyond Wonderland Monterrey. They played a mash-up of Mercury by Maor Levi to vocals from their song “I Can’t Sleep”. The visual was of a woman dancing in the rain while lasers hovered over the audience. When you looked up, you were in the water with her.

That moment was Trance. That moment was also one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken. I tried to convey just that. No massive stage. Not a large crowd. Just a woman dancing in the rain.

This year's anthem celebrating ASOT 1000 is called "Turn the World into a Dancefloor" and wow...just wow.