The Classic Trance
Archive.

Paul van Dyk is the Berlin producer whose 1998 remixes of 'For An Angel' and Binary Finary's '1998' effectively wrote the melodic-uplifting vocabulary the entire genre borrowed from for the next decade. His weekly radio show Vonyc Sessions and long-running residencies at Cream Liverpool and Gatecrasher made him the first genuinely global trance headliner — and the reason a generation of DJs learned that a trance breakdown could be as important as a chorus.

Before the pop pivot, Tiësto (Tijs Verwest) codified 'classic vocal and progressive trance' as a listening format through his In Search Of Sunrise compilation series. His remix of Delerium's 'Silence' and his own 'Adagio For Strings' are two of the biggest trance records ever pressed, and his opening performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics remains the single most-watched trance DJ set in history.

Ferry Corsten is the Rotterdam producer behind System F, Gouryella (with Tiësto) and Moonman — arguably the most prolific classic-trance producer of the era. 'Out Of The Blue' and 'Gouryella' alone would guarantee him a top-tier place in the canon, and his remix catalogue reshaped dozens of other people's records into main-room monsters.

Armin van Buuren turned the weekly radio mix into the genre's central institution. A State Of Trance launched in 2001 and never stopped, becoming the platform through which most of the world discovered classic-era trance in real time. His early productions — 'Communication', 'Blue Fear', 'Sound Of The Drums' — are foundational uplifting records in their own right, and the yearly ASOT Top 1000 vote is the closest thing trance has to a Grammys.

Sasha (Alexander Coe) is the UK's progressive standard-bearer and one half of the Sasha & Digweed partnership that essentially invented long-form progressive DJing across Renaissance, Northern Exposure and Communicate. His own productions — 'Xpander', 'Wavy Gravy', 'Belfunk' — are masterclasses in restraint and momentum, and taught a generation that the mix, not the record, was the actual composition.

Nick Bracegirdle's Chicane project defined Balearic trance for the classic era. 'Offshore', 'Saltwater' and the 'Behind The Sun' album remain among the most-played sunset records in Ibiza history and represent trance at its most textural, melodic and coastal. If someone says they don't like trance but they love Ibiza sunsets, they already love Chicane and just don't know it yet.