State

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A State of Trance

A State of Trance (often abbreviated as ASOT) is a weekly radio show aired every Thursday at 20:00 (CET), 7pm (UK Time), 2pm (EST) and hosted by prominent trance producer and DJ Armin van Buuren. It is also the name of van Buuren's annual CD compilation series.

History

Background and growth

First airing in March 2001 on ID&T Radio (the predecessor of Slam!FM), the show takes the format of a two-hour mix in which Armin plays new trance music (uplifting trance and progressive trance), both promotional and commercially released. Selected tracks are announced during the show in order to help promote new artists and releases. Its radio-show/website combination has proven popular internationally, as fans—while listening to the radio-show—will converse in the website chat-rooms and forums, such as Digitally Imported, during the broadcast. Progressive trance and uplifting trance producers all submit promotional and commercially released tracks to compete to make it onto the playlist of the show each week. The success of the show has also spawned to include several dance events around the world. The show is celebrated live each year in different locations around the globe with a lineup consisting of many trance artists.

Armin van Buuren

Armin van Buuren (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɑrmɪn vɑn ˈbyːrə(n)]; born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch trance producer, DJ and radio personality.

Since 2001, Van Buuren has hosted a weekly radio show called A State of Trance, which currently has more than 20 million weekly listeners in 74 countries on over 150 FM radio stations. This radio show propelled him to stardom and helped cultivate an interest in trance music around the world.

Van Buuren has won a number of accolades. He has been ranked the World No. 1 DJ by DJ Magazine in their annual Top 100 DJs fan poll a record of five times, 4 years in a row. He is currently ranked World No. 4 on DJ Magazine's list for 2015. In 2014, he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for his single "This Is What It Feels Like" featuring Trevor Guthrie, which makes him the fourth trance artist ever to receive a Grammy nomination. In the United States, he holds the record for most entries (21) on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart. His 2008 studio album, Imagine, entered the Dutch album chart at No. 1, a first for a trance artist in Dutch music history.

Andrew Rayel

Andrei Rață (born 21 July 1992, Chișinău), better known by his stage name Andrew Rayel., is a Moldovan producer and DJ.

Career

Rayel's electronic music career started in 2009 at age 17, but he had started to produce music and develop his style four years previously. He is signed under the Armada Music label, co-founded by Armin van Buuren. His breakthrough followed the voting of his single “Aether” as “Tune of the Week” on Van Buuren's radio programme, A State of Trance. He performed at various "A State of Trance" events.

Rayel's tracks are frequently played by influential DJs and producers around the world, including Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Markus Schulz, Dash Berlin, Bobina and Roger Shah. In 2012, Rayel was ranked number 77 in DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs; he was ranked #28 in 2013, winning the title of "highest climber" in the ranking. Rayel announced in 2013 that a new artist album was to be released in 2014.

In August 2013, Rayel announced his first official compilation, titled Mystery of Aether, including tracks from van Buuren, Ørjan Nilsen, Airbase and W&W, among others. It included new songs and remixes performed by Rayel. The album was released on 6 September 2013. In September 2013, he made an entry for the song he worked for the ASOT 650 Anthem contest, however did not win the contest.

Trance

Trance denotes any state of awareness or consciousness other than normal waking consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.

The term trance may be associated with hypnosis, meditation, magic, flow, and prayer. It may also be related to the earlier generic term, altered states of consciousness, which is no longer used in "consciousness studies" discourse.

Etymology

Trance in its modern meaning comes from an earlier meaning of "a dazed, half-conscious or insensible condition or state of fear", via the Old French transe "fear of evil", from the Latin transīre "to cross", "pass over". This definition is now obsolete.

Working models

Wier, in his 1995 book, Trance: from magic to technology, defines a simple trance (p. 58) as a state of mind being caused by cognitive loops where a cognitive object (thoughts, images, sounds, intentional actions) repeats long enough to result in various sets of disabled cognitive functions. Wier represents all trances (which include sleep and watching television) as taking place on a dissociated trance plane where at least some cognitive functions such as volition are disabled; as is seen in what is typically termed a 'hypnotic trance'. With this definition, meditation, hypnosis, addictions and charisma are seen as being trance states. In Wier's 2007 book, The Way of Trance, he elaborates on these forms, adds ecstasy as an additional form and discusses the ethical implications of his model, including magic and government use which he terms "trance abuse".