Josh Gabriel is an American

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

DJ and producer, most known for his collaborative partnership

Gabriel & Dresden Gabriel & Dresden is an American electronic music duo comprising Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden, formed in San Francisco, California. They collaborated from 2001 to 2008, then again from 2011 to the present. During that time, they have created nu ...

with

Dave Dresden Dave Dresden is an American electronic dance music DJ and producer, co-founder of the collaborative acts Gabriel & Dresden with Josh Gabriel, and Dresden and Johnston with Mikael Johnston. History 1988–2000: Early years Dresden's zeal for ...

History

Early years (1988–2000)

In 1988-89, a 20-year-old exchange student from

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

, was living in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

in the Netherlands and studying at the

Institute of Sonology The Institute of Sonology is an education and research center for electronic and computer music based at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in the Netherlands. Background The institute was founded at Utrecht University in 1960 as the Studio fo ...

. Josh Gabriel had already been working with digital music since his high-school days, achieving mastery of the DX7 and TX816 by the age of 17. With an Apple

Macintosh Plus The Macintosh Plus computer is the third model in the Macintosh line, introduced on January 16, 1986, two years after the original Macintosh and a little more than a year after the Macintosh 512K, with a price tag of US$2,599. As an evoluti ...

, operating system 3, and the earliest of music applications like

Mark of the Unicorn Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) is a music-related computer software and hardware supplier developed by Jason Linhart, Craig Finseth, Scott Layson Burson, Brian Hess. It is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has created music software since 1984. ...

's "Composer" and "Performer", Josh was already at the bleeding edge. In the Netherlands, Gabriel's inventor spirit took shape as he wrote a computer application to control samples on an

Akai S900 The Akai S900 is a 12-bit sampler, with a variable sample rate from 7.5 kHz through to 40 kHz. It was common in recording studios until it was superseded two years later by the S1000. An expanded version, the Akai S950, was released in 1988 al ...

in real-time with a joystick. And the inception for what later became

Mixman Mixman Technologies, Inc. is an American interactive music company that develops computer software that allows for the creation and manipulation of music files. Founded by Josh Gabriel and Eric Almgren, Mixman launched in April 1994 and is headq ...

had been born. Along with electronics whiz Jan Pannis, (Stockhausen's tech-man) Gabriel and Pannis built an apparatus which converted beams of light coming up off the floor into a Midi Control device and the 20-year-old Gabriel dressed in black, wearing white gloves performed his real-time beat-trigger device in the clubs of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. By 1993 Gabriel was doing high-end digital sound editing, design and production in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and finally found a business partner and the journey that was to become Mixman began. Mixman had always been conceived as a hardware device, the "

Walkman is a brand of Personal stereo, portable audio players manufactured by Sony since 1979. It was originally introduced as a portable Compact Cassette, cassette player and later expanded to include a range of portable audio products. Since 2011, ...

", the "

Discman was a brand name used by Sony for their portable CD players. The first Discman, the Sony D-50 or D-5 (depending on region), was launched in 1984. The Sony brand name for Discman changed to CD Walkman, initially for Japanese lineups launched ...

", the "Mixman"... and several proto-types were built. The path to hardware was longer than software and in late 1995 early 1996 the first Mixman application was released to the public. Spin Control, included 8 songs from the San Francisco underground Dance Music scene, that were remixable with only a PC, enough

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

and a proper

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

. Gabriel's patents for loop-based music remixing are the backbone of industry standard music making software applications used in virtually every producers studio today. By 1999, Mixman had evolved and grown and merged with a larger dot.com. Expanding briefly to the Mac platform and deepening its relationship with Record Labels and

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

as well as starting work with

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

on a controller (eventually became the DM2) -- things looked good. But as happened with many dot.coms the ride got bumpy. In late 2000 Gabriel decided he had had his fill of the corporate life, and decided he wanted to return to "music". In 2002 Mixman sprung free of the dot.com shackles and returned to independence.

Gabriel & Dresden (2001–2008)

Before he attended music school in the Netherlands and

and started experimenting with synthesizers and computers in the early 1980s. At the same time

was a club deejay in a suburb of

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

as well as a renowned US dance music journalist. He became the

Music Director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

of grooveradio.com and met

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong (born 30 July 1960) is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for ...

, who asked him to help find music for the Essential Selection. They met at a party being hosted by grooveradio.com at the

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Winter Music Conference The Winter Music Conference (WMC) is a week-long electronic music conference, held every March in Miami Beach, Florida, United States since 1985. It is also known as the premiere platform for electronic dance music. The conference brings togethe ...

in March 2001. Josh gave Leon Alexander a record, the record was "Wave 3", which Dave then gave to Pete Tong, and he played it on the Essential Selection and also used it for his compilation that same year. Pete gave Dave the opportunity to do a spec mix of New Order and Dave asked Josh to work on it with him. The two joined forces in 2001 and made a name for themselves by creating numerous remixes. In 2002 Gabriel & Dresden released their first single "Lament" (Saw Recordings) in the United States. The duo released numerous singles and number one ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' hits like " Tracking Treasure Down" and " Dangerous Power"; They also released one self-titled studio album together, ''

''. Josh played the

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

on Armin van Buuren's single "Zocalo" in which both Dave & Josh produced the sounds. The duo won the 2007 and 2008 IDMA award for "America's Best DJ". He has achieved 16 ''Billboard'' Dance Chart No. 1 hits as "Gabriel & Dresden", composed music that has appeared on

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

TV shows. Gabriel & Dresden have their own record label, Organized Nature. Gabriel has also invented a new pro-audio web application that will be available to the public in Winter 2009.

Solo years (2008-2010)

Josh spent his time off from Gabriel & Dresden starting a label called Different Pieces (via

Armada Music Armada Music is a Dutch independent record label that specialises in releasing electronic dance music. Armada Music was founded on 1 June 2003 by Dutch producer Armin van Buuren, Dutch business executive Maykel Piron, and music manager David ...

) and working on three different album projects. The first, his 2008 solo album "Eight" which was named after the amount of analog synthesizers used to record it. He also worked on an album project for Winter Kills, Josh's band project with vocalist Meredith Call. This yielded the song "Deep Down" which charted on the

Hot Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set list ...

chart and was on Armin Van Buuren's A State of Trance 2009 year-end compilation. He also produced the debut album for

Andain Andain was a San Francisco, California, San Francisco-based electronica, electronic music duo, originally formed in 2000. They broke through in 2002 after being discovered by Tiësto, DJ Tiësto, reaching clubbers worldwide with their singles "S ...

"You Once Told Me" which finally saw a release in 2012 and spawned a sizable hit with the song, " Promises (Andain song)", which Gabriel & Dresden remixed in 2011.

Gabriel & Dresden reunion (2011–present)

On December 31, 2010, Gabriel & Dresden reunited for special one off New Year's Eve celebration alongside

ATB ATB or atb may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ATB (DJ) (born 1973), German DJ and music producer * Active Time Battle, a role-playing video game mechanic * Andy Timmons Band, a band led by guitarist Andy Timmons * Atelier-Théâtre Burkinab ...

and Francis Preve at the

Hollywood Palladium The Hollywood Palladium is a theater (building), theater located at 6215 Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was built in a Streamline Moderne, Art Deco style and ...

in Los Angeles. Shortly afterward, the duo were booked on the

Anjunabeats Anjunabeats (, ) is a British record label started in 2000 by producers Jonathan "Jono" Grant and Paavo Siljamäki of Above & Beyond. Initially, Anjunabeats was only a trance music label, and it started releasing trance-edged house in 2011. T ...

WMC Miami party at the Ice Palace as a special guest. Since this event, Gabriel & Dresden have officially announced themselves as reunited. Since the reunion, Gabriel & Dresden have performed at many clubs and festivals around the world including

Electric Daisy Carnival Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is the largest e ...

(Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago & Orlando),

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Tomorrowland (Disney Parks), a theme land at a number of Disney theme parks around the world * Tomorrowland (festival), an annual electronic dance music festival in Boom, Belgium * ''Tom ...

in Belgium, Electric Zoo Festival in New York,

Sunburn Festival Sunburn Festival is a commercial electronic dance music festival held in India. It was started by entrepreneur Shailendra Singh of Percept Ltd. Spanning over three to five days, the festival has multiple stages with artists playing simultane ...

in India, Escape From Wonderland, Nocturnal Wonderland, Paradiso Festival, Creamfields Australia, ASOT 550: Invasion,

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publisher (popular music), music publishing busin ...

, London,

Zouk Zouk is a musical movement and dance pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm, and a loud horn section. Musicians from Mart ...

and a monthly residency at the Marquee Las Vegas in Las Vegas. In 2011 they signed an artist deal with

which brought forth their mix compilation "Mixed for Feet, Volume 1" as well as numerous singles including 2012'a "Play it Back" featuring

Betsie Larkin Betsie Larkin is an American vocalist, songwriter and guest writer/vocalist based in San Francisco, California, United States. Her first EDM collaborations with Ferry Corsten, "Made of Love" and "Feel You", appeared on Corsten's album '' Twice in ...

, "Tomorrow Comes" with Neil Ormandy (2013), "Shatter" (with D-Wayne) and a re-working of Tracking Treasure Down Revisited. On February 3, 2014, they restarted their monthly radio show "Gabriel & Dresden present Organized Nature" on

Digitally Imported DI.FM (formerly known as Digitally Imported) is an Internet radio broadcaster consisting of over 90 channels dedicated to electronic music, such as house, trance, techno, drum and bass, and dubstep. DI.FM broadcasts handpicked selections consis ...

's progressive channel. Since this show was already on the air in the past, it began this time around with Episode 30. On March 29, 2014 they released "Rise Up" which was supported by a wide variety of DJs including Above & Beyond,

Eric Prydz Eric Sheridan Prydz (, ; born 19 July 1976), also known by his many aliases including Pryda () and Cirez D (), is a Swedish DJ and record producer. He rose to prominence with his 2004 hit single " Call on Me", and saw continued chart success wi ...

, Armin Van Buuren,

Markus Schulz Markus Schulz ( , ; born 3 February 1969) is a German DJ and record producer based in Miami, Florida. Best known for his weekly radio show titled ''Global DJ Broadcast'' that airs on Digitally Imported radio, ah.fm and other online stations, Sc ...

Jason Bentley Jason Bentley (born July 27, 1970) is an American DJ, Producer, and music executive who has played an influential role in the evolution of dance and electronic music in the US. Having hosted music programmes on a variety of commercial and public r ...

, amongst many others. The official music video for this song was generated entirely from

Creative Commons License A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bu ...

content found on the video sharing website

Vimeo Vimeo ( ) is an American Online video platform, video hosting, sharing, and services provider founded in 2004 and headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices and operates on a ...

Discography

''For discography as

, see Gabriel & Dresden discography.''

Albums

* 1996 ''Mixman: Remixable Hip-Hop · House · Acid Jazz · Underground'' (Compilation album) * 2008 ''Eight'' (Studio album) * 2011 ''Winter Kills''

Singles/EPs

* 2002 Wave 3 * 2005 Alive * 2006 Tracking Treasure Down * 2007

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

* 2008 Tone Program * 2009 Rubber * 2009 Wood * 2009 Winter Kills - Deep Down * 2009 Entropy * 2010 Winter Kills - My Friend

Remixes

* 2002

- Summer Calling (Josh Gabriel Mix) * 2003 Andain - Beautiful Things (Josh Gabriel Mix) * 2004 RND() - Nova Santori (Josh Gabriel Mix) * 2010

Layo & Bushwacka! Layo & Bushwacka! is the pseudonym of British Disc jockey, DJ duo Layo Paskin and Matthew Benjamin, who released four tech house albums between 1998 and 2012. Layo Paskin Paskin, from London, began his DJ career at the age of sixteen while wor ...

- Let The Good Times Roll (Josh Gabriel Unauthorized Dub) * 2008 Francis Preve - Caboose (Josh Gabriel Remix) * 2008 Stel - New Life (Josh Gabriel Remix) * 2009 Andain - Promises (Josh Gabriel Remix) * 2009 Winter Kills - Deep Down (Josh Gabriel Remix) * 2010 BT - Every Other Way (Josh Gabriel Remix)

Co-productions

* Andain - Summer Calling * Andain - Beautiful Things *

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( , ), is a Dutch DJ and record producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by ''Mix (magazine), Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, h ...

- Walking on Clouds * Armin van Buuren - Zocalo *

- Without You Near * (As Winter Kills (with Meredith Call)) Armin Van Buuren - Take a Moment * Ellen Meijers - '' Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee'' soundtrack (1997) * '' Oddworld: Soulstorm'' soundtrack

Awards and nominations

''For awards as

, see Gabriel & Dresden Awards / Nominations.'' * ''Nominated'' WMC Best Progressive / Trance - Beautiful Things -

References

External links

Trance AddictJosh Gabriel at Discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabriel, Josh Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Record producers from California American electronic dance music DJs American remixers American trance musicians Armada Music artists