Artist of The Month – Dash Berlin (April 2016)

Dash Berlin Takes A Stand For Trance

Known for taking everyone on an emotional journey filled with Trance music, the Dutch act Dash Berlin needs no introduction! This trance superstar is known for his distinctive melodic style and mesmerizing live shows. Dash Berlin was created in 2007 by Jeffrey Sutorius, Eelke Kalberg and Sebastiaan Molijn. Jeffrey Sutorius, who is the face of Dash Berlin, also represents it by himself.

Influenced by his late father, who was a Jazz drummer, Jeffrey started drumming at a young age. He used to work at BPM Dance and Mid-Town Records, the stores which specialized in vinyl and are well-known outlets in Netherlands. Being high-profile record stores, they were obviously meeting places for many established Dutch DJ’s and that is how Molijn and Kalberg who were deejaying as Pronti & Kalmani at the time, met Jeffrey.

Having been a fan of electronic music, Jeffrey had grown to become a collector of vinyl trance music. Influenced by the pioneering figures such as Sven Vath, Oliver Lieb and Sander Kleinenberg, it was finally time for Jeffrey to start mixing and producing his own music. He released his first record on ‘BPM Legends‘ records and started performing in the Dutch underground music scene in early ’95. Kalberg and Molijn have been contributing to the international dance scene for over ten years, with award-winning and platinum-selling hits for dance acts such as Alice Deejay, Vengaboys, Candee Jay, Pronti & Kalmani and Solid Sessions. Remember David Guetta‘s “Play Hard“? It sampled “Better Off Alone” by none other than Kalberg and Molijn. It was one of the first trance records that became big in the United States They also have worked with DJ Sander Kleinenberg on classic tracks like “This Is Miami” and “The Fruit” and remixes for major artists such as Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, BT, Usher, N.E.R.D., Lenny Kravitz and many more!

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Finally in 2006, Dash Berlin came to life when Jeffrey Sutorius, Kalberg and Molijn teamed up. This trio was the match made in heaven! The 2007 single “Till The Sky Falls Down” was the breakthrough for Dash Berlin, which went on to become an instant hit all over the world. Armin van Buuren included it in the third chapter of his acclaimed Universal Religion mix album and the trance visionary also signed Dash Berlin to Armada Music. It was a clear indication for the promising artist project that the future will be shining bright.

In 2009, Dash Berlin unveiled his debut studio album The New Daylight which was released on Armada and Dash Berlin’s own Aropa Records. Tracks like ‘Waiting‘ ft. Emma Hewitt, “Man on The Run” (in collaboration with Cerf, Mitiska and Jaren) became the favourites of people and brought numerous IDMA nominations and wins for Dash Berlin and collaborating parties. ‘Waiting’ was voted the second best trance track by the ASOT audience in 2009.

In 2010 , Dash Berlin was set to go even higher. Nominated for the Best European DJ in IDMA, Dash Berlin entered DJ Mag top 100 on #15 which was the highest new entry at that time! It was the highest Dutch entry of all time, beating the heavyweights like Tiesto, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten. Things got even better the next year when he reached #8 on DJ Mag top 100 polls!

The year of 2012 brought the second studio album, #musicislife. The singles “Better Half of Me” featuring Johnathan Mandelson, “Apollo Road” with ATB, “Disarm Yourself” featuring Emma Hewitt were already doing the damage on the dancefloors.

For “Better Half of Me“, Dash Berlin received a nomination for ‘Best Trance Track‘ at the IDMA’s and in Mexico Dash Berlin is nominated for a prestigious Lunas Award in the category Electronic Music among other artists such as Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, David Guetta, Sasha and others. Later, Dash was ranked number 7 in the DJ Mag Top 100 poll, making him the second most popular Trance DJ in the world, right after his mentor Armin van Buuren!

In December 2012, Dash Berlin was nominated for a ‘Tunisia Music Award‘, Africa’s biggest award show till date. You can guess the flow. The achievements’ list is quite long for this musical personality. If we talk the venues Dash Berlin has headlined, in December 2012, Dash Berlin headlined the Sunset Music Festival in Sri Lanka for the first time. In February 2013 Dash Berlin headlined the Ultra Music Festival in Chile and the Ultra Music Festival in Buenos Aires together with Avicii, Carl Cox and Armin van Buuren. Das Berlin has been one of the foremost choices for Armin van Buuren to take on his A State of Trance tours all over the world starting from episode 600 celebration and the history is the witness of this fact.

Proved to be an iconic Trance artist and a tastemaker, Dash Berlin has been dishing out nothing but quality music throughout his career and will continue to do so. 2014 saw the release of his third studio album, We Are (Part 1). An absolute masterpiece, this album contains 7 tracks and every single one of them is perfect! Tracks like “Underneath The Sky”, “Somehow”, “Shelter” are sure to give you goosebumps.

Not only his originals, but also his remixes and reworks are known for his signature melodic touch. Making everything touch the hearts with emotive chords is the intention of Dash Berlin with every remix he makes. Also, his mashups known as Dashups are a treat!

The recent additions to this discography, Dash Berlin has taken on modern Trance sound which takes influences from Progressive House. Tracks like “Underneath The Sky” and “World Falls Apart” signify the new touch in Dash Berlin sound.

In the year of 2016, Dash Berlin stands strong as an influential persona and a premium music producer. Playing the best venues and festivals around the world, living his life doing what he loves.

For the month of April 2016, here we give you the amazing Dash Berlin as the Artist of the month!

As of now, Dash Berlin is set to embark upon a three-city tour to India with Vh1 Supersonic later this month. The cities of Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore are set to witness the Dutch superstar live in the action. More details on that below.

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