Anyone who has been a long term lover of trance will tell you that it doesn’t come much better than a production from Lustral. A collaboration of two artists, Ricky Simmonds and Stephen Jones, the Trance Classics album gives us two CDs of overwhelming musical genius. What we get is some spine chilling trance classics from as far back as the mid 90s from Lustral under other guises such as Chakra, The Space Brothers, Oxygen, The Realm and Ascension. On the ‘Interpretations’ disc, we get taken down the other end of the spectrum with some chilled inspired ambient mixes of their own works. This makes for some of the best listening I have enjoyed all year, and I doubt there is one trance lover out there who would disagree.

No matter what name Ricky Simmonds or Stephen Jones have produced under, they have always been known for very uplifting, driving and melodic trance. One of the first tracks in, there is no better example than For a Lifetime under the Ascension name. Beautiful vocals that carry you through a dream – perfect journey trance and emotive music at its best. After that, the anthems just keep coming. The trance blinder from way back, Home, even though quite old now is still as good as the day it was released. Gorgeous, inspired, well-crafted party trance that gets people swaying and those hands in the air.

The Ascension number Someone is another that is a passionate, roof raising, high energy, melodic number that rocked back in the day. It just feels so right and again perfect atmosphere music. One of those that gets you right on a high – one of my personal old favourites.
Love Shines Through was one from the early Gatecrasher era that is top notch, powerful trance as is Heaven Will Come.

I Am takes a more progressive approach and was one of the first trance tracks I ever owned. The vocals really sell this one. To even break it up, a darker, more serious feel is added with Legacy. This one has some intial haunting melodies but the first break down is nothing short of enchanting. I could go on and on…
Each track takes you to a different place, a unique feeling. Not one of these is just making up the numbers – every second is a trance lover’s paradise.

The second disk ‘Interpretations’ sees Ricky Simmonds and Stephen Jones take all of the tracks on the first disk, plus a couple more under the guise of Lustral and remix them. However, what they do is take each of these trance gems and put a downbeat, relaxed, chilled interpretation on them which really works. In the likeness of Ministry of Sound’s Chill Out Sessions and Café Del Mar, Lustral take all those captivating, emotive, female vocals well known in all these tracks and drop the pace to make them soothing, embracing, electric, hypnotising pieces of music.

In some ways, you can even feel more passion and feeling in these remixes because the lyrics are more predominant, rather than compiled with bass and samples. For A Lifetime is a complete winner and Someone, Troubled Soul and Home are also up on the pedestal here. This CD makes for perfect background music.

Some fantastic trance nostalgia here for all trance fans with every one of these tracks. Not only does it show the timeless classics that Lustral’s works are, it also demonstrates what an influence these have had on the modern sound of trance. Easily some of the early building blocks, if not the foundations of trance to date, it will be the perfect addition to any music collection. A cracker!