Classic trance artists and the DJs who defined them.

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.

Energy 52 was the studio project of Kid Paul and Cosmic Baby, and the source of 'Café Del Mar' — the single most-remixed record in trance history. From Sasha and Deadmau5 to Marco V and Nalin & Kane, almost every major producer of the last thirty years has taken a run at that melody, and the Three 'N One remix remains the definitive version everyone eventually comes back to.

Roberto Concina — Robert Miles — was the Italian producer whose 'Children' single-handedly invented dream trance in 1995 and sold over five million copies worldwide. Miles's work is proof that some of the era's most enduring records came from artists who never intended to be club producers at all, and 'Children' remains the most-hummable melody the genre ever produced.

Not a person, effectively a public utility. A State Of Trance is a weekly radio show, a record label, and a world-tour brand hosted by Armin van Buuren — and it is the single biggest reason 'classic trance' is still a live conversation in 2026 rather than a museum piece. Its Who's Afraid Of 138?! sub-label exists specifically to defend the classic BPM range from the temptation to slow down and chase EDM money.

Paul Oakenfold is the London DJ, producer and label boss whose Perfecto Records (founded 1989 with Steve Osborne) effectively wrote the crossover playbook for British trance. His 18 December 1994 Essential Mix — 'The Goa Mix' — is the single most-celebrated broadcast in BBC Radio 1 history and the moment trance became a serious conversation on UK radio. He held the Perfecto Friday residency at Cream Liverpool from 1996 to 2000, was voted the world's #1 DJ by DJ Magazine in 1998 and 1999, released Tranceport (1998) — the US compilation that arguably invented American trance fandom — and scored the Swordfish soundtrack in 2001. His Perfecto remix of U2's 'Even Better Than The Real Thing' and the Perfecto Allstarz reworking of Grace's 'Not Over Yet' remain two of the era's defining crossover records.

Gouryella is the Dutch trance production project originally founded in 1999 by Ferry Corsten and Tiësto (Tijs Verwest) on Corsten's Tsunami Records imprint. The self-titled debut single Gouryella entered the UK Singles Chart in March 1999 and re-entered in July, peaking at #15 during its second run — one of the very few melodic-trance instrumentals of the era to reach the UK top twenty. Corsten and Tiësto released three singles as the duo — 'Gouryella' (1999), 'Walhalla' (1999) and 'Tenshi' (2000) — before Tiësto departed to concentrate on In Search Of Sunrise and his own DJ career. Corsten continued as a solo Gouryella project, retiring the name after 'Ligaya' (2002) and revived it in 2015 with 'Anahera' on his Flashover Recordings imprint, followed by 'Neba' (2016), 'Venera' (Vee's Theme) (2018) and 'Surga' (2020). The Gouryella sound — patient 138 BPM uplifting-trance builds, huge cinematic supersaw leads, breakdown-first arrangement — has remained the template Corsten returns to whenever he wants to write a pure, unashamedly classic trance record.

ATB is the recording name of André Tanneberger, the Freiburg producer whose talkbox-guitar single '9 PM (Till I Come)' hit UK Singles Chart #1 in September 1999 and briefly turned German trance into daytime chart pop. His album Movement (1999) and the annual Nine PM Sessions radio show gave classic-era trance its most successful commercial-crossover chapter. Later Playa I / II compilations codified the Balearic-vocal wing of the genre, and his output through Kontor Records and his own Sunset Music remained the reference point for radio-friendly progressive-trance for the whole 2000s.

Above & Beyond are the London trio of Tony McGuinness, Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki who took over the vocal- and progressive-trance canon from roughly 2004 onwards through their Anjunabeats label (founded 2000) and the weekly Group Therapy podcast (launched 2012). Records like 'Sun & Moon', 'Thing Called Love' and 'No One On Earth' — plus their OceanLab side project with Justine Suissa — are the late-classic vocal-trance benchmarks. Their ABGT 500 event in 2022 filled the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, one of the largest single-headliner trance shows ever staged in North America.

BT is the recording name of Brian Transeau, the Maryland-born producer who is the single most important American classic-trance figure. Ima (1995), ESCM (1997) and Movement In Still Life (1999) pushed progressive trance into art-rock and film-score territory before either category was considered a serious neighbour to dance music. 'Flaming June', 'Godspeed' and 'Mercury And Solace' became progressive-trance staples in Sasha and Digweed sets throughout the classic era. Later a Grammy-nominated soundtrack composer whose These Hopeful Machines (2010) was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album.

John Digweed is the Hastings-born DJ who is the other half of the Sasha & Digweed partnership and, in his own right, the producer whose Bedrock label and residency did as much to define progressive trance as any Sasha selection. His Kiss 100 FM weekly show ran for 20+ years; the Northern Exposure trilogy with Sasha (1996–1999) rewrote the mix-compilation template; and Global Underground 006 Sydney and 019 LA are two of the most-cited volumes in that whole series. Digweed's own productions — 'Heaven Scent' as Bedrock, 'For What You Dream Of' with Nick Muir — remain progressive-trance reference points.