Simon Paul Berry, known by his alias Art of Trance, is a

trance music Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from the British new-age music scene and the early 1990s German techno and hardcore (electronic dance music genre), hardcore scenes. Trance music is characterized by a tempo generally ly ...

artist from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Berry is also known as Poltergeist or Vicious Circles, and has been a member of the trance groups Clanger, Conscious and

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

. He has been producing and remixing music since 1993. In addition to his work as an artist, Berry was the founder and head of

Platipus Records Platipus Records was a British trance music record label that was based in London, England. It was founded in 1993 by Simon Berry, and early releases included Union Jack and Art of Trance. Later, the label included artists like Dawnseekers ...

, based in London. Initially his label only released his own tracks. His work was first distributed on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from viny ...

and

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

and then

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

only from 2011.

Career

On 15 June 2002, his track "Madagascar" reached number one on the

UK Dance Singles Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record ...

. His work has charted in United Kingdom eight times as Art of Trance and the first time with "Vicious Circles" under the alias Poltergeist in 1996. Berry has remixed a number of tracks for other electronic musicians, including Quietman, Moogwai,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

Matt Darey Matthew Jonathan Darey (born 29 November 1968) is an English trance music producer and performer. Darey has sold over two million albums and singles with numerous top 10 and top 20 chart hits. Music career Darey was born in Leicester, England. ...

Steve Jablonsky Steve Jablonsky (born October 9, 1970) is an American composer for film, television and video games, best known for his musical scores in the ''Transformers'' film series. Some of his frequent collaboration partners include film directors Mic ...

and Anthony Pappa. A remix of

Yello Yello is a Swiss electronic music band, which formed in Zürich in 1979. For most of the band's history, Yello has been a duo consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank; founding member Carlos Perón left in 1983. Their sound is often charac ...

's "Vicious Games" from the 1985 Stella album, charted in 1999. In 2003, he re-recorded a new version of Jan Johnston's "Calling your name" that charted at #80. His tracks appear on mixed compilations such as '' Tranceport 2'', '' Global Underground 017: London'', '' Upfront Trance'', '' Magik Three: Far from Earth'', '' Oakenfold Anthems'', '' Beyond Euphoria'', '' Ibiza Euphoria'' and '' Classic Euphoria''. Berry's music has been remixed by artists including

Ferry Corsten Ferry Corsten (; born 4 December 1973) is a Dutch disc jockey, record producer and remixer from Rotterdam. He is well known for producing many pioneering trance tracks during the 1990s–2000s under his numerous aliases, including System F, Moon ...

Cygnus X Cygnus X may refer to: * Cygnus-X (star complex), a giant star formation region * Cygnus X (music group) See also * Cygnus X-1 (disambiguation) Cygnus X-1 is an X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus. Cygnus X-1 may also refer to: * Cygnus X- ...

, Perfect Stranger,

Mike Dierickx Mike Dierickx (born Dirk Dierickx in 20 February 1973), and most commonly recognized under the aliases M.I.K.E. Push or Push, is a Belgian DJ. Best known for the song "Universal Nation", he has also released other singles including "The Lega ...

, Michael Woods,

Telefon Tel Aviv Telefon Tel Aviv is a New Orleans–derived, Chicago-based American electronic music act, formerly comprising Charles Cooper and Joshua Eustis. Since Cooper's accidental death in 2009, Telefon Tel Aviv has continued with Eustis as the sole officia ...

and Gai Barone. Art of Trance performs at various international music festivals and parties. He was credited for the release to a wider audience of the single " Children" by

Robert Miles Roberto Concina (3 November 1969 – 9 May 2017), known professionally as Robert Miles, was an Italian record producer, composer, musician and DJ. His 1995 composition " Children" sold more than 5 million copies and topped the charts worldwide ...

after its initial release failed to chart.

Production

Berry's music has been described variously as

progressive trance Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from the British new-age music scene and the early 1990s German techno and hardcore scenes. Trance music is characterized by a tempo generally lying between 135–150 beats per minute ...

psychedelic trance Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...

acid trance Acid trance is a genre of trance music that emerged in the early 1990s focusing on using the acid sound. The trademark sound of "acid" is produced with a Roland TB-303 by playing a sequenced melody while altering the instrument's filter cutoff fr ...

and

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

. During the 1990s, Berry's music production was focused on his wide array of

analog synthesizer An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...

s. From 2005 on-wards, his work space shifted to the computer. His current hardware includes an Analogue Solutions Nyborg 12, Modal 008, Alesis Andromeda A6, Abstrakt Instruments Avalon and a Moog Sub 37. He uses

Logic Pro Logic Pro is a digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer software application for the macOS platform. It was originally created in the early 1990s as Notator Logic, or Logic, by German software developer C-Lab which later went by Em ...

and

Reaktor Reaktor is a graphical modular software music studio developed by Native Instruments (NI). It allows musicians and sound specialists to design and build their own instruments, samplers, effects and sound design tools. It is supplied with many ...

with a range of plugins. Art of Trance is well known for the usage of samples of natural sounds (or electronically produced imitations of natural sounds) in his tracks, like bird singing (e.g. "Easter Island", "Kaleidoscope" and "Madagascar"). The songs "Stealth" and "Blue Owl" were featured on the

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

'' Midnight Club II''. Various remixes have appeared on the

SongBird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds ( Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 50 ...

and

Black Hole Recordings Black Hole Recordings is a Dutch record label founded by Tijs Verwest (Tiësto) and Arny Bink in 1997. In August 2009, Tiësto decided to leave Black Hole Recordings, setting up the record label Musical Freedom in association with PIAS Entertai ...

music labels. Berry's work is currently distributed through Platipus Music. Berry has described his style as deep trance, explaining his preference for "techno-based hypnotic progressive house with depth, and occasional psychedelic and melodic elements". He cites

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting). Depech ...

Vangelis Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...

Tomita is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aijiro Tomita (1885–1954), Japanese politician *Hiroyuki Tomita (born 1980), Japanese gymnast *Isao Tomita (1932–2016), Japanese electronic music composer *Kazuo Tomita (born 19 ...

Orbital Orbital may refer to: Sciences Chemistry and physics * Atomic orbital * Molecular orbital * Hybrid orbital Astronomy and space flight * Orbit ** Earth orbit Medicine and physiology * Orbit (anatomy), also known as the ''orbital bone'' * Orbito ...

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' New ...

Jean Michel Jarre Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompan ...

Wendy Carlos Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos, November 14, 1939) is an American musician and composer best known for her electronic music and film scores. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Carlos studied physics and music at Brown University before movin ...

Juan Atkins Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. ''Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Bell ...

, Derrick May and

Jeff Mills Jeff Mills (born June 18, 1963, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American DJ, record producer, and composer. Thanks to his technical abilities as a DJ, Mills became known as ''The Wizard'' in the early to mid 1980s. In the late 1980s Mills founded ...

as his musical influences.

Discography

Albums

*1996 ''Wildlife on One'' *1999 ''Voice of Earth'' *2009 ''Retrospective''

Singles

Remixes

References

External links

Facebook profile

Beatport profile
* Art of Trance bio at allmusic.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Simon Living people English trance musicians Remixers People from Somerset 1970 births English techno musicians