[divider]The Early Years[/divider]
[highlight]Proto Trance[/highlight]
Trance gets its roots from house, techno, and ambient electronic noise. In fact, if you want to go way back in searching for the origins of trance, you would probably end up with Klaus Schulze’s 1975 work, Timewind. This piece, which certainly could not be called trance by today’s standards, has effects that sound strikingly similar to those emotional trance pads.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp1Sy76RpN0
Schulze continued to influence by giving the genre its namesake with his piece, Trancefer in 1981. Similar works were released around this time by artists such as Jean Michael Jarre. Electronic composers no doubt, but no superstar trance DJs yet!
[highlight]1988-92 [/highlight]
Inspired by the sounds of Schulze and Jarre (amongst others) in the 70’s and early 80’s, techno and house DJs of the mid-80’s began incorporating elements into their tracks. It wasn’t until 1988 that this sound developed distinctly enough to be given its own classification. Most it was The KLF’s track What Time is Love? that launched the genre into being.
As the genre gained steam over the next few years, two German DJs, Dag Lerner and Rolf Ellmer, brought trance into the limelight with their combined project “Dance2Trance”. Their first track, We Came in Peace was released in 1990.
While the house and techno heavy tunes of the 1980’s weren’t going anywhere, they would need to learn to share the spotlight with its happier, more well-adjusted cousin, trance. Here’s one more from the period. In 1992, we get to hear early Paul van Dyk with Cosmic Baby as the pioneers, Visions of Shiva, with their track Perfect Day.
Other pioneers putting out trance-themed tunes during this era include: The Future Sound of London, Energy 52, LDC, and Evolution.
[highlight]1993[/highlight]
Paul Van Dyk continued to make revolutionary tracks for trance, and gave us his remix of Humate’s Love Stimulation, certainly a standout of the year.
As techno heavyweight Sven Vath entered the arena, this area in trance really opened up some new avenues, such as giving rise to a progressive element not heard before. For a great example, check out Country & Western’s Reincarnation.
This was also the year that the sounds from Goa, India really started to bleed over into more popular trance. While Goa trance had developed on its own tripped out, totally awesome path, and would eventually morph into psychedelic trance, it still had a lot to give to its more mainstream cousin. This was the year hard trance came into existence, giving us the intensity we so love in trance. Superstring, an early track by Cygnus X, provides us with a fantastic classic hard trance tune.
Our Top 10 trance producers and DJs for this year: Astral Projection/SFX, Cosmic Baby, Energy 52, Humate, Jam And Spoon, LDC, Paul Van Dyk, Speedy J, Sven Vath, and Union Jack.
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