Paul van Dyk

Growing up with his mother in East Berlin, Paul states his musical education was derived from the radio where he would listen to forbidden Western stations such as RIAS (Radio In the American Sector) and SFB (Free Berlin Radio). Starting out in the early 1990s it didn’t take Van Dyk long to find his footing in Berlin's dance club scene following the fall of the Iron Curtain. Hard-htting, industrial-orientated Detroit techno music was the sound of the era in Berlin, Germany and Van Dyk one of its pioneers.

Van Dyk’s debut album “45 R.P.M.” was released in Germany in 1994 and in England and America four years later in 1998. The rerelease was marked by a remix of the song “For An Angel” and also payed homage to the now debunked trance club ‘E-Work’. The album was well-acclaimed although his second album “Seven Ways” released in 1996 cemented Van Dyk as a leader in the trance-music scene, gave him a mainstream audience, and represented his first real success in the UK. The album features the tracks “Beautiful Place,” “Forbidden Fruit,” and “Words,” which became staple songs on dance music charts and floors all over Europe, featuring cosmic flourishes and blissful payoffs setting Van Dyk apart from his DJ peers.

Famous for his anti-drug stance Van Dyk is known for not drinking anything stronger than energy drink with vodka and led to t-shirts reading "No E, Pure PvD” appearing at his gigs. He is also known for hosting huge rave-style parties across the world, DJing for seven-hour stretches at a time and still finds time to manage his own label, Vandit Records.

Since “Seven Ways” Van Dyk has released five more studio albums, three remix albums, four video albums, has been featured on TV shows such as Scooby Doo, contributed to film soundtracks including Han Zimmer’s “The Dark Knight” as well as being feature on multiple video games. This shows the extent to which Van Dyk is entrenched within contemporary culture and the intimidatingly-long list of awards he has won speaks volumes to his value and respect he is giving within the industry.

Corsten made and released his first official record in 1989, when he was 16 years old. One year later he turned professional and began making a living out of it, and by 1995 he’d won his home country’s prestigious De Grote Prijs van Nederland.

He began his career making underground Gabber tracks and diversified into club-house and trance soon afterwards. His first charting single was also one of his first self-penned tracks, called “Don’t Be Afraid”, with the success of that single he set up a label called Tsunami with producing partner Robert Smit and released his first album as System F “Out Of The Blue”, two years later.

This release made him a big name in dance scenes all over the world, and properly broke him in the United Kingdom, as well as. Two of the singles, the title track and its follow up “Cry” went into the top 20 singles chart and he was given the award for Producer of the Year at the Ericsson Muzik Award in London.

The man had successfully popularised Trance music, solidified by a compilation album that Ministry Of Sound released of the genre going platinum with ease. He hasn’t quite established himself with the commercial clout that some of his peers today have, but names like Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk and Corsten’s old apprentice Tiësto play his tracks to clubs the world over.

However, his newer group New World Punx sold out Madison Square Garden in one hour for their VERY FIRST SHOW. So clearly Corsten’s name is as respected and revered as it ever was. This is an artist at the top of his game, and if you can get a ticket, he should be seen as soon as possible.