The Swedish archipelagos are home to some of the most breathtaking environments in the world, landscapes dotted with amazing flora and fauna and brilliant sunsets overlooking the Baltic Sea. It also happens to be the home of Rickard Berglof and Robert Elster, who make up Swedish trance act Vibrasphere. This is a happy coincidence, because before I joined the Swedish Tourism Board I listened to their new album, entitled ‘Archipelago’ and I think you should too.

‘Archipelago’ is the third album from the duo and the second on their current label Digital Structures. Taking inspiration from the environment, the sounds in the album vary from ambient breaks to progressive to pumping trance. The influence can certainly be heard right from the start with the breathtaking ambient opener ‘Tierra Azul’. ‘Sweet September’ and ‘Reservoir’ do a great job of keeping the wintery vibe and building things up until ‘Landmark’ hits, one of the best trance tunes this year. Right from the intro of the track you know this is going to be a belter of a tune and it doesn’t dissapoint.

Vibrasphere are known for a progressive psy trance sound, but listening to this album shows you that psy can be more than just bleeps and sci-fi movie samples. The depth of Vibrasphere shows in tracks like ‘Baltic Resonance’ which is more like a progressive breaks track and the closer ‘Late Winter Storms’. The samples of waves lapping on the shore, rain and thunder, wind blowing and the general use of the instruments makes you feel like you really are in a cold wintery environment. ‘Seven Days To Daylight’ seems to make you feel like you really are waiting for the sun to shine, with the sample “Do you think the world is coming to an end?”

To conclude, if people like DJ Sneak want to say that trance has no soul, then they should listen to this. This has soul a-plenty in my opinion. It is trance. It is not trance. It is brilliant.