We were there again for 3rd year at Tomorrowland in Boom, Belgium and it was an unforgetable experience that will be hard to overcome.
Tomorrowland 2012, the BEST GLOBAL DANCE EVENT, was a massive success with the best ever edition so far. The organisation, the decoration, the sound, the fireworks and the best line up ever are some of the key elements behind the success of this fantastic festival.
On the 2nd day, 28th of July we met for a second time with Johan Gielen after the interview we did at Tomorrowland 2010. Johan is rocking the crowds currently with his collaboration with the legendary Belgian producer Jan Verloet on High Contrast/Be Yourself Music. Within this interview Johan Gielen talks about his future projects. He tell us about his new record label that starts soon at Black Hole recordings that will showcase tracks from new artists, reworks of Johan Gielen classics and many more surprises. He talks about his next collaboration with Jan Vervloet on High Contrast recordings and he give us a hint about the future of his Airscape project. Of course he talks about his gigs and his monthly radio show streamed on 1mix radio. He express his gratitude of being at Tomorrowland playing along with Jan at the fantastic I Love the 90's stage. Enjoy Johan Gielen who reveals his future moves in this top interview.
Tasty information about Johan Gielen:
Johan Gielen started his rise to fame at the age of seventeen playing at a local Dutch club, which eventually landed him his first residency at Club Velfarre in Tokyo. When he decided to come back to Holland his reputation preceded him; his career skyrocketed! In no time he was rocking decks at Dance Valley, Sensation, Godskitchen and many more. Up to this day Johan Gielen remains the only artist with 15 consecutive sets at Trance Energy under his belt. Johan has made it perfectly clear that he’s not ‘just the guy who plays the records’ but an all out performer who get the crowds going.
As for the productions? Any dance-music fan can name a few of Johan’s hit records. For a while Johan teamed up with Svenson and produced monsterjams like ‘The Beauty of Silence’ and ‘Twisted’. When he was just by himself Johan created hits like the Airscape remix of ‘Delirium – Silence’ and of course no one can forget his hands-up partytrack ‘Played-A-Live’. In 2006 Johan released his debut album ‘Revelations’ mixing things up a bit. Get some trance, add a little progressive, a dash of techno and we have a winner. Mixing different styles was the way to go for Johan which he proved with tracks like ‘My Love’, the chart-topping ‘U Got To Know’ which he made as ‘The Dubguru’ and his remake of Hollis P. Monroe’s ‘I’m Lonely 2011’.
2012 Johan Gielen has started a collaboration together with Jan Vervloet, one of the best producers Belgium has to offer, with an enormous list of hits already under his belt. This collaboration has spawned an very special track,built around an old, well known, sample the double J’s created a dirty sounding big room banger.
Besides a remix by Jan Vervloet himself, also Mark Sherry steps up the remix platter and adds some Sherry madness.’Music For Free’ still is a favorite and is supported by; Eddie Halliwel, Gareth Emery, Lange, Thrillseekers, Scot Project and many more.
‘Music For Free’ was found in the Beatport top 100, Trackitdown top 3 & the Dancetunes Charts.
To this day Johan remains a busy man. He’s working on his second artist album and a new ‘Global Sessions’ mixcompilation featuring collaborations with artists he’s befriended over the years, producing tracks in a variety of genres. When he’s not doing that you’ll probably find him working on his radioshow called ‘Global Sessions’. This show is broadcast by various stations all over the world and it’s exactly this global character that defines Johan’s career.
AIRSCAPE PROJECT:
Airscape has been rocking your world with quality releases ever since 1992, when one of the finest icons in the trance landscape, Johan Gielen, cultivated a new project and conquered the dance floors with his energetic productions. Between 1992 and 1995, Airscape was nurtured by Gielen who slam dunked the scene with tracks such as Plaisir D’Ete and Cruising. Successful releases such as Pacific Melody (UK#27), L’Esperanza( UK #33), Amazon Chant ( UK #46) and Sosei - still considered as all time trance classics - were not only supported by the aristocracy of world DJ’s, but also found their way onto a pile of global compilations with sales exceeding millions of copies combined.
One of Airscape most well-known remixes is that of the Delerium song "Silence", which was used as the lead single release and in the music video of the song when it was re-issued in 2000, reaching the top 3 of the UK Singles Chart.
Many a DJ seems to think that having the ability of mixing two records will bring instant stardom. Johan Gielen doesn’t belong to that breed: Dutch DJ Johan Gielen singlehandedly put the A in the “Art of DJ-ing”, showing his worldwide audience that being a DJ is not only about seamlessly mixing one track into another, but that the Art of DJ-ing had to incorporate a certain amount of genuine showmanship. His presence on stage, his interaction with the crowd, his undying love for quality music and his mixing abilities, combined with a tremendous drive, makes Johan Gielen one of the true pioneers of trance music going back as far as the early nineties.
In no time, Johan Gielen claims a two year residency at Tokyo’s finest venue Velfarre, played the biggest venues of the world and appeared in every line-up of ruling festivals and clubs like Dance Valley, Sensation White, Sunrise Festival, The Guvernment, Space, Godskitchen and many more. Up to this day, Johan Gielen remains the only artist who performed fifteen times in succession on the prestigious Trance Energy event.
Since 2005, the Airscape project took a firm break but as of 2009, it was Johan Gielen personally who resurrected Airscape and injected it with a fresh focus complimented with the brand new Airscape release My Love featuring US vocalist JES, released late 2009 through Black Hole Recordings.
This single is followed by the highly anticipated release of Airscape’s album Now & Then.With the addition of established vocalists such as JES and Jennifer Hershman and fresh crispy clear productions, you have an undiluted album in your hands, fusing both Airscape as they invaded the ninetees with Airscape 2.0: the old to the new, extended with Airscape classics in revamped mixes by nonetheless than Tiësto, Armin van Buuren and Alex O’Rion. 2012- Johan Gielen will continue his Airscape project , starting with a new track that will be released july 2nd on Liquid-Spinnin records!
Many thanks to Paul at 1mix for his great camerawork,
Many thanks to Debbie & Getinpr for having us at Tomorrowland as press.
Additional info:
