Paul van Dyk‘s eighth studio album isn’t like the ones that came before. For one, it almost never happened.
The iconic trance producer created From Then On in the wake of a near-death experience. He spent a year in rehabilitation after falling from a high stage at A State of Trance, and the experience gave him greater insight into the beauty of life.
“Music has a distinct ability to take people away from their problems and relieve anxiety and stress, and this is the feeling we are trying to enhance with this new show concept,” van Dyk said in a statement earlier this year. “This intensified experience of sights, sounds and sensations will be our next level of entertainment. Paired with music of my upcoming album From Then On, it’s going to be a celebration of trance, life and unity.”
From Then On comes in strong with emotive opener “While You Were Gone.” It’s grand and cinematic, then picks up the pace with the dance-floor beat of “Inhale.” It is all very grand and European. Its 14 tracks shimmer with excitement, capturing both the inward moments of reflection that bring inner peace and the outward expression of joy and wonder van Dyk now centers his experiences around.
The album will please any of van Dyk’s fans old and new. It speaks with all that emotional sensibility his fans have come to know and love. It is a polished, positive body of work. It gives the listener a confident sense that he or she can take on anyone and anything. It’s a smile from start to finish, and a triumphant end to a turbulent chapter for a man with a new lease on life.
Listen to From Then On, released on van Dyk’s Vandit Records
