VAN BUUREN, ARMIN / THRILLSEEKERS, THE / LANGE - [V1] ASOT CLASSICS SERIES, VOL. 1

Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren (born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch DJ and record producer. Since 2001, he has hosted "A State of Trance" (ASOT), a weekly radio show broadcast to nearly 40 million listeners in 84 countries via more than 100 FM radio stations. Van Buuren has received multiple accolades throughout his career. He has been ranked the number one DJ by DJ Mag five times, including four consecutive years. He was placed fifth in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs list in 2022, fourth in 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020, and third in 2017. In 2014, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for the single "This Is What It Feels Like" featuring Trevor Guthrie, becoming the fourth trance artist to receive a Grammy nomination. In the United States, he holds the record for the most entries, twenty-one, on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Steve Helstrip has been at the very forefront of the global dance scene for over 7 years now. From his breakout hit 'Synaesthesia', through to the anthems 'Dreaming of You' and most recently 'By Your Side', he has continued to produce a powerhouse of the most emotive, evocative music going. He has remixed for luminaries such as Tiesto, Timo Maas, Sonique and Chicane, lending them all his trademark melodic, euphoric sound. Steve has enthralled crowds the world over with both his Thrillseekers Live and DJ sets. The Ministry, Gallery, Gatecrasher and Godskitchen have all born witness to his fluid mixing, unique style and highly energetic performances. It's these sets that saw him crack the DJ Magazine's ‘Top 100 DJs’ chart for the first time in 2004, and more recently break the top 50, coming in at no. 45, in Oct 2006. Steve started out making electronic music while working for the computer games developer, Manic Media. Whilst living in Chipping Norton, on the Oxfordshire border, with a relatively basic home studio he constructed the trance milestone "Synaesthesia". Signed and released by Neo Records in 1999, at the height of the trance boom, it went on to sell over 12,000 copies on its initial UK release. With its vibe on the subtler side of the genre it took more than a year to fully realise its own potential however. Its road to full-blown chart success was assisted in no small part by Paul van Dyk. He took the record and gave it a six month long, gig in, gig out battering. 2000 saw PVD sign it to his own Vandit label, remix it and with the inclusion of a vocal from Sheryl Dean it entered the UK top twenty in Feb 2001. As a standalone track it has rocked a million clubbers hearts across hundreds of countries. It still appears in a huge cross-section of DJ's all time top tens today. Whilst still closeted in Chipping Norton, Steve took it upon himself to learn the art of DJing. It was initially born purely out of a desire to see how his records worked in the mix with other tracks, and as a tool with which to improve their properties for the DJ. This quickly turned into a desire to see them, first hand, fire up a floor. Realising how, in the ever changing world of dance music, DJ'ing was starting to go hand in hand with production, Steve began to apply even more energy to perfecting the skill. It was around this time that he was approached by Neil Stacey who had just opened his Connected DJs Agency. Neil was also more than aware of the rapidly expanding desire from punters to see their production heroes DJing. Within six short months Neil had Steve playing at the biggest and most influential clubs on the planet. From Gatecrasher to the Gallery, on to Passion and the Ministry, he has delighted clubbers with his pinpoint mixing and passionate performances. Steve was always one for quality over quantity and whilst other trance producers belted out one sound-a-like track after another, he focused on creating a catalogue he would still be happy with in 20 years time. Following "Synaesthesia" came "Dreaming of You" which was released on Ministry of Sound's Data label and in the UK alone, featured on 14 compilations. From there it would be over a year before Steve produced another Thrillseekers track. 'NewLife' was originally passed to Ferry Corsten in December of 2003 when Steve went over to The Netherlands to co-produce 'Sublime' – the opening track on Corsten's Grammy Nominated ‘Right Of Way’ album. Ferry smashed it as an exclusive for six months driving demand through the roof. It was around this time that Steve decided to add another string to his bow with the opening of his own label, Adjusted Music. 'NewLife' was the first release and to date it has been compiled on to 15 compilations worldwide. Adjusted's second and forth outings were the in-demand re-releases of 'Synaesthesia' and ‘Affinity’ (which was originally released under his Hydra moniker). As well as releasing his own tracks, Steve focused on bringing in new talent to the label. He inked both Evolve’s ‘Safe to Dream’ (ADJ003) and Deep Voices ‘Alone Again’ (ADJ005) to Adjusted. His remix of the former showcasing for the first time a deeper, more housey slant to his production. This musical shift ignited fully with the release of his forth single ‘By Your Side’ in 2006. Featuring the vocals of Gina Dootson, it brought with them a more thought-provoking, lamenting edge to Steve’s music. Any biography of The Thrillseekers would be far from complete without mentioning his side-projects and collaborations. Immediately following the success of ‘Synaesthesia’ Steve went on to launch a new moniker for MOS subsidiary, Incentive. En-Motion was born and with it came "Truth" in 2000 and "Getting Away with It" in 2002. In the adjoining years he also pushed forward partnering in collaborations with Andy "Pulser" Perring as Insigma ("Insigma’/’Open Our Eyes"/"Avalon") and with ATCR owner Tim Stark under the name Rapid Eye ('Never Going Back'/"Circa-Forever"/"Stealing Beauty"/'Santa Cruz'/'Absolut'). Steve's remix career started pretty much the same day as "Synaesthesia" was promoed. Since then he has revamped, remapped and reshaped in excess of thirty other artist's tracks. From Sonique to Sholan, from Tiesto to Timo Maas (twice!) and from Chicane to Cequenza, he has lent them all his awesomely melodic, electronic touch. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

An innovator of the trance sound that exploded in '98, Lange is universally recognised as one of the scene's strongest and most-consistent producers. His first major success was his remix of DJ Sakin's 'Protect Your Mind', swiftly followed by his famous Lost Witness – ‘Happiness Happening’ remix which also entered the UK Top 20. He eventually reached 20 UK top 40s, more than any other Trance artist to date; alongside featuring on a film soundtrack, and remixing other mainstream artists such as The Pet Shop Boys and Faithless. Lange is also a prolific international DJ, making appearances for club brands such as Godskitchen, Gatecrasher and Ministry Of Sound as well as performing for prestigious festivals such as such as Global Gathering, Creamfields, Sziget, Sunrise and Balaton. He achieved a sustained appearance in the influential Top 100 DJ Poll for 8 years as well as rising to no. 6 in the well supported Tranceaddict Top 250 Poll. His label, Lange Recordings, was set up to showcase his own productions alongside those of other established and up and coming artists within the trance scene. The label continues to grow and has gained consistent support from the DJ elite over the years. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.