KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — Are the hedonistic stylings of electronic trance music, strictly a young man’s game? Apparently not.
And we don’t say that because Dutch pioneer of the genre, Ferry Corsten, is going strong even as he turns 44.
The melody-maker revealed to Malay Mail his 73-year-old father played a role in his emphatic sixth studio album Blueprint, released to fanfare from the trance family last May.
It was his father, Martin, who came up with the record’s winning element, a storyline that runs throughout all 13 tracks.
“We’ve become so used to, myself included, the instant gratification of Spotify. Listen to the first three or four seconds of a song and if it’s no good, move on,” said Corsten during a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur.
“None of us make the effort to listen anymore.”
Years ago, Corsten flirted with the idea of telling a story within a 50-minute-long trance track as a lengthy mix fans could indulge.
He changed his mind after a conversation with dad when he realised there was a way to apply narrative to music while keeping the concept fresh.
Martin touched on a spot of personal history between father and son. He remembered Jeff Wayne’s 1978 musical version to War of the Worlds, a rock opera album that retold HG Wells’ famous text.
Corsten realised the destiny of his next album.
“My dad was the one who switched on the light bulb.”
Blueprint began to manifest.
Corsten contacted Los Angeles-based scriptwriter David Miller (House of Cards, Rosewood) and riffed ideas about a sci-fi-themed plot for the album.
“We didn’t want to go overboard with aliens and crazy monsters, but more like a love story involving an AI, something relatable,” he said, using the initials for artificial intelligence.
As the storyline was 70 per cent complete, Corsten got to work laying out the musical landscape.
“I started producing according to the emotion, the type of vibe that was needed for each chapter,” he said.
“I figured people may skip through anyway. Each track starts with an extract from the story. The motivation was to get people to listen to an album as a whole again.”
Some naturally expected flak for his novel approach, but Corsten fulfilled his ambition and it won fans over, thanks in-part to hits such as Waiting, with its success down to the DJ’s return to form after a few years dabbling in EDM.
Blueprint returned to sweet synthesised sound of trance that ravers have long yearned in its “pure” format.
Back in the late 1990s, Corsten spearheaded trance out of Netherlands with Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren, earning a reputation with standout single Gouryella, a bastion of the genre that broke into international charts.
Gouryella, which means “heaven” in Australian aboriginal language, was originally the alias between Corsten and Tiesto, until Tiesto pursued other avenues.
A year before Blueprint was released, Corsten resurrected the project solo to put out 12-track album From The Heavens in 2015, which he then toured with an immersive visual set-up to appease the masses.
“I was at an advantage because I knew it was very much alive after many years.
“I could post anything on social media, taking a walk in the park, and people would respond saying, ‘is there ever going to be another Gouryella?’
“But it presented a problem.
“The idea of Gouryella then has become iconic, like a holy grail. How do you top that? You have to come back with a strong record or it’s a write-off. It took me a while.”
Gouryella came back in ways even Corsten’s peers didn’t quite see coming.
The likes of Van Buuren, Paul Oakenfold and members of Above & Beyond praised the rebooted music and immersive shows that came with it in a film that documented Gouryella’s momentous return.
It was held in high regard by fans as something remarkably “special”.
“It reached the point where I was tired with what I was doing, people were tired of ‘put your hands up’ music all the time.
“I really wanted to bring that emotional thing back again. I needed a track for the right moment for Gouryella which became Anahera,” he said of the song that was voted Tune of the Year in 2015 on Van Buuren’s A State of Trance radio podcast.
“A bit more substance is probably what fans are looking for. Gouryella fit the bill. That’s where my heart is.”
Corsten has been playing Malaysia since the mid-2000s, and has been featured more than half a dozen times in clubs up and down the country.
He was expected to debut his Gouryella 2.0 show at Transtellar festival, which was cancelled on the day itself on Jan 27.
He respects the nation as a trance music stronghold.
“At first, Asia for me was just Japan, where System F was huge,” Corsten said of another one of his monikers.
“But trance has been in Malaysia since its beginning. I was surprised with the solid following here and in Indonesia.
“A lot of markets in Asia are completely EDM to the point trance has vanished, but not here.”
