“ Trance Nation as a series of compilations for us has been always one of those ones that we really go back to. Even these days, we look back to some of the early Trance Nation releases and they really remind us of an era in dance music. And that’s really what our approach to the CD was very much about.”

The last time UK trance trio Above & Beyond were in Australia, the response from the crowds was truly overwhelming. While they played amongst acts with wide appeal like Kraftwerk and Mark Ronson, they arguably walked away as the crowd favourite for the entire Global Gathering tour. We’re all dying to have them in the country again, but while we’ll be forced to wait a little longer, they’ve made their presence known again in our country in a slightly different fashion – they’re manning the mixing duties alongside Sony inthemix50 #1 Tydi on Ministry of Sound’s first ever Trance Nation for the local market. And according to the groups’ Paavo Siljamäki, they felt they had a big legacy to live up to.

“We tried to create a mix that really represents where Above & Beyond is in the 2009 spring and summer. But there are a lot of compilations where you go an try and put the newest, freshest unreleased tracks that you possibly can; but on this one, our focus was on ensuring it was as much a representation of this time as possible, so you can look back to this mix in five or ten years time and really remember this exciting moment in trance and electronic dance music.”

ITM’s Angus Paterson chats with Above & Beyond about their pursuit to bring us the very finest the trance nation has to offer.

Trance Nation, mixed by Above & Beyond and Tydi, is out now through Ministry of Sound and Universal.