Trance fans are traveling great distances across North America to be in Montreal for Monkey Buzinezz‘s second annual Trance Unity event. With three different rooms, each with a stacked line up of artists, it didn’t take much convincing to get the majority of our EDM TOR team to make the six hour trip east to be in attendance. Edmund wrote up an event preview when it was announced four months ago, and I wrote an editorial featuring reasons why going to T.U. will be worth the effort.
With less than one month until the show, we present three articles going into depth of talents found in each of the three themed rooms: Heaven, Hell (written by Nicole), and Earth (written by Edmund). Each one of the artists in my room hail from different countries around the world. It doesn’t matter how different their upbringings were or what languages they speak, they’ve all been invited to play at Circus HD for the same reason – their production and love of trance. Music truly is as universal language.
Alexander Mieling, better known by his stage name Alex M.O.R.P.H., is a DJ and music producer from Germany who has been on the scene since 1996. He released his debut album “Purple Audio” on Paul Van Dyk‘s label Vandit Records in 2009. This was the same year he made his first and only solo appearance on DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs at #99. In 2010 he released his second album, “Hands On Armada”, remixing a variety of trance classics that have been released on the Armada label. His 2011 single An Angel’s Love gained the attention of many and has collected over 1.5 million plays on Youtube; his third studio album “Prime Mover” was released on Armada Music the following year, shortly after the single’s debut.
Nearly twelve years ago, Alex M.O.R.P.H. teamed up with Dutch DJ Woody Van Eyden to create HeavenGate, a radio show and event brand. Up until episode 445, the two hour broadcast would feature a guest trance DJ mix followed by a b2b with M.O.R.P.H. and Eyden (the majority of the shows now consists of guests with occasional appearances from the founders). In April of 2015, he released the first episode of his brand new weekly podcast Universal Nation, crossing over different trance sounds within a 60-minute long mix.
Do you believe in fate? Because Allen & Envy‘s career origin is similar to those cheesy romantic “love at first sight” stories. In 2012 in Leicester, England, Steve Allen and Scott Envy met for the first time at a summer barbecue through mutual friends. They shared the same musical tastes and visions and began DJing together at local venues.
Their first track, a remix of Cygnus X‘s The Orange Theme, was released in the winter of 2012. The song was discovered by Armin Van Buuren, who played it on his A State Of Trance radio show and at ASOT 600 Sao Paulo. After having this positive recognition on a global scale, Allen & Envy’s career sky rocketed. Throughout the following year, they released dozens of singles and remixes on labels such as Armada, Black Hole Recordings, Adrain Raz Recordings, and Rebooted Recordings. With all the support and success in 2013, the duo launched their own record label TOGETHER Recordings as well as their own podcast called Together As One, a weekly radio show featuring their favourite tunes with occasional additional mixes from guest DJs. They have performed live at several festivals over the years including ASOT, Luminosity, and Dreamstate, and have made a couple appearances and live recordings (which can be found on their Soundcloud page) in Toronto.
Giuseppe Ottaviani‘s love for music started at the age of four when he started learning how to play the piano. He attended music school in his early childhood and studied classical music as a teenager; it wasn’t long before he discovered the electronic dance music and made his first appearance to the scene alongside Andrea Ribeca as NU NRG, releasing the popular trance tracks Dreamland and Free Fall on Paul Van Dky’s label, Vandit Records. Six years later, the Italian DJ and producer began his solo career with big success. Nowadays, Ottaviani works alongside Solarstone under the Pure Trance brand, and plays with him often as Pure NRG.
In 2006, Ottaviani began performing with his LIVE! concept in mind – recreating renowned tracks with live instruments. He revamped the concept, titled it Live 2.0 and debuted at Electric Daisy Carnival: Mexico earlier this year, now loaded with the equipment to create music in real time, using stings, drums, and other instrumental elements to mix in on the spot. Ottaviani will be bringing his Live 2.0 show to Trance Unity, and is one of the sets I’m looking forward to the most!
Hailing from Alexandria, Egypt, Hazem Beltagui started off his career by creating music within the progressive house genre. When his 2013 track We Are was supported by Armin Van Buuren, he decided to focus his attention and creativity towards trance sounds, calling his new music “melotrance” to describe its unique sound. He is the creator of the Red Soho label and was host of We Are Melotrance, a weekly podcast that ran from April 2013 until November 2015.
Looking to rebrand and take a different musical direction, Beltagui founded a new record label named Crossings late in 2015 and released the compilation album “Crossings: The Settling”. Four months later, he returned to creating weekly podcasts, this time under the name The Mélomane Diaries (“mélomane” meaning “music/melody” in French). Beltagui has made multiple appearances at a Future Sound Of Egypt and A State Of Trance music festivals since 2013 and is traveling over to Holland right after Trance Unity to make his debut appearance at Luminosity Beach Festival.
Orkidea has been involved with the trance scene since the early 1990’s. Tapio Hakanen is a Finnish DJ and producer who has maintained a firm devotion to the underground origins of the scene and has been supported by some of the biggest names in the industry. He’s released four studio albums and countless classic original tracks and remixes. He has focused his most recent attention as a contributor to Solarstone’s Pure Trance brand.
From his first shows at illegal underground raves in 1992, to headlining sold out venues such as London’s Ministry Of Sound, Buenos Aires’ Pacha and Los Angeles’ Exchange, Orkidea has left a strong impression on the trance scene over the last twenty-four years.
It’s been a decade since Sied Van Riel actively entered the scene with his first track Fearless in 2006. Sied was introduced to acid house music at the age of 10 and became a fan of electronic dance music throughout his teen and young adult life. It wasn’t until he was twenty-eight that he started producing his own music.
This Dutch DJ has released a total of four compilation albums through Spinnin’ Records and Black Hole Recordings since 2009 along with many original singles and remixes in between. He also hosts a weekly radio show titled Rielism which broadcasts every Monday at 3pm EST. Riel describes his music as “deep, driving, warm, melodic-fuelled trance” with each track or remix “directly [relating]to my personality, experiences and state of mind”.
Tomac is our Canadian representative in TU’s Heaven room. Alexandre Nadeau was initially introduced to the Euro dance genre back in the mid 90’s but grew to love trance by the early 2000’s. Inspired by his love of the scene, and with lots of practice and patience, he started creating his own productions and began spinning by 2006.
Well supported within the community and with many releases on big record labels such as FSOE Recordings/Armada (including his hit Daria) and Black Hole Recording (for his compilation “In Trance We Trust”), Tomac is a name that should be on every trance-fan’s radar. He is the current resident DJ at Circus Afterhours and has earned his spot in the main room. Tomac is our Manager’s favourite DJ and she highly recommends making it in to hear his set.
As a last minute addition to Heaven’s line up, Nicholas Drolet aka Niles Baxter was the lucky winner of the Trance Union North East (TUNE) contest, receiving the privilege of playing Trance Unity’s opening set plus $500! Aspiring DJs were asked to submit a 30 minute mix to Monkey Buzinezz (the promoters of this event) and the top five finalists were put up for a general vote. With 19.38% of the votes, Niles Baxter from Gatineau, Quebec will be kicking off the fifteen hour marathon of trance with a ninety minute set.
The following message was posted on his Facebook account:
It’s done. We did it.
Thank you so much each and every one of you who have taken the time to help me with this contest and who’ve supported me since the very beginning! And believe me, this is only the beginning.
I would also like to congratulate all the other finalists of the competition. I took the trouble to listen to what they had us concoct for the contest and I can honestly say that I am happy to be part of such a high notes in the trance scene in Montreal!
Thank you once again the whole world. For me, it is worth all the gold in the world.
Tickets for this event are still for sale but online sales currently sit at the third and final tier (with limited tickets available at the door for an inflated price). Find out more information and connect with other trance lovers by joining the official Facebook Event page.
HEAVEN – SET TIMES:
21:00 Niles Baxter (Nicholas Drolet)
22:30 Tomac
00:30 hazem beltagui
02:30 Orkidea
04:30 Giuseppe Ottaviani Live 2.0
06:00 Alex M.O.R.P.H.
08:00 Sied van Riel
10:00 Allen & Envy
| LINKS: Alex M.O.R.P.H. Website Soundcloud Youtube |
Allen & Envy Soundcloud |
Giuseppe Ottaviani Website Soundcloud Youtube |
| Hazem Beltagui Soundcloud Youtube |
Orkidea Website Soundcloud Youtube |
Sied Van Riel Website Soundcloud Youtube |
| Tomac Website Soundcloud Youtube |
Ashlyn Doughty – EDM TOR
