Trance Music

Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s; generally characterized by a tempo of between 120 and 140 BPM, short melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track. It is a combination of many forms of music such as industrial, techno, and house. The origin of the term is uncertain, with some suggesting that the term is derived from the Klaus Schulze album Trancefer (1981) or the early trance act Dance 2 Trance. In any case, the name is undoubtedly linked to the ability of music to induce an altered state of consciousness known as a trance. The effect of some trance music has been likened to the trance-inducing music created by ancient Pagan shamanists during long periods of drumming.

Origin

Jean Michel Jarre – a pioneer of electronic music – released two highly influential albums in the late 1970s: Oxygène in 1976 and Equinoxe in 1978.

The 1980s saw the further development of the genre; Klaus Schulze – inspired by the work of Jarre in the previous decade – composed several albums of highly atmospheric, sequencer-driven “experimental music. Two of these albums – 1981′s Trancefer and 1987′s En Trance – include the word “trance” in their titles. The albums share similarities with early trance music; and, for this reason, are sometimes labeled as “trance”. Neil Young’s 1982 electronic effort – Trans album – bears striking resemblance to the trance music genre.

In retrospect, some of the earliest identifiable trance recordings came from the acid house movement, with records such as “Jesus loves the acid” and groups such as Phuture. The word ‘trance’ would often be used to describe the mood of the (often intoxicated) revelers at parties, clubs and raves, due to the repetitive nature of the music of the day^.

The crowd could ‘trance out’ to the slightly metamorphosing sounds and simple, repetitive beats and dance movements. Another influential song of the time was Orbital’s instantly recognizable “Chime” (1990), which allegedly being produced with next to no money, went on to receive huge success.

The trance sound beyond this acid-era genesis is said to have been an off-shoot of techno in German and Belgian clubs during the very early 1990s. Age of Love’s self-titled debut single which was released in early 1990 is seen by some as a basis for the original trance sound to come out of Belgium. Some consider “The Age of Love” to be the first true trance single.

Germany is often cited as a birthplace of trance culture. Some of the earliest pioneers of the genre included Laurent Garnier, Jam El Mar, Oliver Lieb, and Sven Väth who all produced numerous tracks under multiple aliases. Trance labels like Eye Q, Harthouse, Rising High Records and MFS Records were Frankfurt based. Arguably a fusion of techno and house music, early trance shared much with techno in terms of the tempo and rhythmic structures but also added more melodic overtones. Also, the songs did not “bounce around” in the same way that house did and often contained unpredictable shifts in beat structure. These early forms of trance are now referred to as classic trance and were longer and more abstract than the more danceable trance that was to follow.