Music
Swedish Trance – 10 defining tracks
Where did trance come from? This is the story of how the emotional dance music genre entered Sweden and why it's here to stay.
During the raving ‘90s a new emotional genre of dance music was emerging in clubs in Germany. Synth arpeggios, hard kicks and layers of euphoric ambience. It was the birth of techno’s spiritually enlightened sister – trance. The successful Swedish techno export in the ‘90s and early ‘00s has been covered by countless music journalists, but what about Swedish trance? Where did this music (and movement) come from? When the genre went mainstream through DJ’s like Tiësto and Paul Van Dyk in the early ‘00s, it was looked down and even mocked by the dance music community. Today however, we see a new spark of interest and various references to trance and the new age culture amongst the producers of deconstructed club music, and it seems like a trance revival is here. Or maybe it never disappeared? In any case, we thought this could be a good time to go through the origins of the genre that has been uniting bodies and minds for more than 25 years.
We give you: 10 tracks that mark the start of trance music in Sweden.
1. Source – Neuromancer (R&S, 1993)
The first trance release in Sweden was this album by Robert Leiner, also known as Source. It was one of the first electronic album covers with the producer’s face on it, a change of trend on a scene where the DJ/producer used to be anonymous.
2. Vector – The Circuit (Planet Rythm, 1994)
Vector is the moniker of Cari Lekebush who is known to be one of the founding fathers of Swedish techno, however he also had time for some trancy musical endeavours.
3. Miranda – Timeless Worlds Of Space (Koyote Records, 1995)
Described as “the queen of goa”, Miranda Silvergren was the producer who took Goa Trance and Psytrance to another dimension during the ‘90s and ‘00s.
4. OXL – Listening Comprehension Test (Cosmic One Records, 1995)
You might have heard of Axwell, one third of the Swedish House Mafia – but have you heard of his early days trance moniker OXL? Released by Jimi Disko, watch the interview with him from Sonár, Barcelona below.
5. Lucky People Center – Sundance (Beverage Records, 1995)
What started as an illegal rave in Gothenburg turned into the music collective LPC, known for their mixture of techno and ambient music accompanied with videos and documentaries attending to themes like spirituality and enlightenment. Some of the members were musicians Lars Åkerlund, Sebastian Öberg, David Östergren, Jean-Louise Huhta, and film editor Johan Söderberg.
6. Antiloop – In My Mind (Stockholm Records, 1997)
You probably only need the intro to recognise this track. The characteristic classical start of In My Mind was produced by duo David Westerlund and Robin Söderman who used a sample from Hold That Sucker Down (Builds Like a Skyscraper Mix) by The O.T. Quartets. The distinctive melody and simple yet effective vocal sample taken from Warehouse (Days of Glory) by New Deep Society has made this song the anthem it is today.
7. Atmos – Jimmy The Plate (Spiral Trax, 1999)
Real name Tomasz Balicki, the producer behind Atmos was a key player of the progressive trance scene during the '00s and has kept on releasing music until 2016.
8. Vibrasphere – Mental Mountain (Spiral Trax, 2000)
The Uppsala born duo Rickard Berglöf and Robert Elster have an impressive discography reaching back to 1999 and several dub infused psy-trance productions under their belt.
9. Ticon – Skunk Funk (Digital Structures, 2001)
Time for one more duo with members Filip Mårdberg and Fredrik Gilenholt known for putting out various psychedelic and progressive trance productions.
10. Son Kite – On Air (Digital Structures, 2004)
Guess what, another duo. You might have heard about Marcus Henriksson and Sebastian Mullaert when they call themselves Minilouge, but did you know that they started out making trance, naming their first album from 2000 “Minilouge”?
For more music related fun, follow Red Bull Music.
