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Exactly two days ago, Armin Van Buuren has released his new album "Mirage". After unveiling a few weeks ago the playlist of his fourth album "Mirage" and posted on Youtube the clip of his track "Not giving up on love", featuring Sophie Ellis Bextor, Armin van Buuren surprised a lot of his trancy fellows. This expected album shows, once again, that the man was able to renew his favorite genre. In addition to this success story, Armin should keep for the third consecutive year, his place of No. 1 of the Top 100 DJ by DJ Mag. Actualités Electroniques will share with you in the following article his thoughts about the new album of the best DJ in the world!
ARMIN VAN BUUREN – MIRAGE ALBUM - PLAYLIST
01. Armin van Buuren feat Susana - Desiderium 207
02. Armin van Buuren - Mirage
03. Armin van Buuren feat Christian Burns - This Light between Us
04. Armin van Buuren vs. Sophie Ellis Bextor - Not Giving up on Love
05. Armin van Buuren - I Don't Own You
06. Armin van Buuren - Full Focus
07. Armin van Buuren feat Winter Kills - Take a Moment
08. Armin van Buuren feat Nadia Ali - Feels So Good
09. Armin van Buuren feat Sophie - Virtual Friend
10. Armin van Buuren feat Laura V - Drowning
11. Armin van Buuren feat Ana Criado - Down To Love
12. Armin van Buuren - Coming Home
13. Armin van Buuren feat BT - These Silent Hearts
14. Armin van Buuren - Orbion
15. Armin van Buuren vs Ferry Corsten - Minack
16. Armin van Buuren feat Adam Young - Youtopia
According to Armin's own words, "Mirage" was the biggest musical project of his career. He said : “Mirage has been the biggest project I’ve ever worked on. There’s so many hours in this. Work started two years ago when I actually built a completely new studio for this project. Many new techniques were used and most of all I had so much fun creating this with the many people that are involved. It was a journey, an epic one”. After many hours spent refining these 16 tracks, Armin gave birth to an album which required two years of work. Indeed, "Imagine," his lastest album was released in 2008. This period is mainly due, as you can see, to the many featuring made to produce this album. In the manner of David Guetta or Tiesto, Armin van Buuren has decided to surround himself with the best singers to put their voices on these crazy melodies.
After three albums, "76", "Shivers" and "Imagine", which pleased mainly fans of trance, Armin returns in 2010 with a more ambitious project, which mixes different styles of music. You will have the opportunity to discover a new facet of Armin van Buuren, with more or less original featurings. If we find a track made with his friend Ferry Corsten, there are more daring guest appearances like the ones of Sophie Ellis Bextor, Nadia Ali and even Adam Young of Owl City group. He had buzzed a few months ago on the net because of his tracks posted on Myspace. He released then a deep and lounge album.
For the release of his debut single in late June, Armin chose "Full Focus". It evolves into a classic trance and techno atmosphere with special effects that give a dramatic touch to the production. Armin said about it: “The first track of the album has been a sure shot in my sets for quite a while now. I decided to come back with an instrumental trancer right before summer and all the big festivals. Half of my new album will be instrumental trance, but with the sound of 2010.”
The second single out of this album "Mirage" was the one with the sweet voice of Sophie Ellis Bextor. The collaboration has given birth to "Not giving up on love", an ode to love. This track has been broadcasted on BBC2 during the show of Dermon O'Leary and was released in late August. After two singles, it's now the turn of the full album to emerge.
This album, inspired and influenced by many types of music, brings Armin van Buuren in lands where he had not yet ventured by. “Mirage” is more diverse than any other Armin’s albums before. His collaboration with Sophie Ellis Bextor is a perfect example of that, combining the best of both worlds.
This experience shows that artists of trance, house or electro, are trying to diversify their sounds to reach a wider audience. Even if this is a relevant cooperation and not necessarily really different from his previous tracks, it shows how artists of electronic music, are taking a new directions in their artistic choices.
At the end, we can say that "Mirage" is a compendium of music that merges with each other. It starts with the magical voice masterpiece "Desiderium 207”, then a deep trance track "I Do not Own You " and the sexy " Take a moment” piece, to the house track "Feels So Good" kinda Kylie Minogue’s style, finishing by the huge sparkling trance track "Orbion”. This album, that consists of 16 tracks, highlights how Armin has matured as an artist.