Freezing The Atmosphere

10/26/2000 11:00 PM, LAUNCH
Justin Hampton

Ever since he fell into the fast track of the European dance music community in the early '90s, Paul Van Dyk has straddled the fine line between being a dance-floor motivator and a sonic biographer. "I try to make a freeze-frame of some atmosphere which I thought [was] worth bringing across, like some extreme excitement or some astonishing moments," he says of his bittersweet and tuneful creations. "And when I go into the studio, I try to get this atmosphere going again. This is when melodies appear and different styles of music appear. And I start basically going into it with all the elements together to actually bring this atmosphere across."

Van Dyk began his atmospheric adventures in 1988, just as the Berlin Wall tumbled to the ground and rave culture took hold among Europe's young. The sounds of Detroit techno and Chicago house had already colonized the clubs, but Van Dyk favored a style closer to the traditions of European pop. At first, he used his talents solely to make mix tapes of his favorite tunes for friends, but word quickly spread to promoters, and so his career as a DJ began. "I heard this music on the radio [in East Berlin], and it was quite deep, electronic music," he recalls. "And when I went to all the clubs in Berlin, after the Wall went down, it was really hard, Detroit-oriented techno, which I'm not too much into. So obviously, I was looking for those records that I heard before, on the radio. And there was a lot of that stuff, and so I bought compilations and mixed tapes, basically for myself and a couple of friends, so we could listen to it in the car when we drove to parties. And they'd pass [the tapes] on, and suddenly I got a couple of phone calls, like, 'Would I be able to play here and there?' And this is how it started."

Before long, Van Dyk was holding residencies at standard-setting clubs such as E-Werk and the Tresor Club. Abandoning his earlier apprenticeship as a carpenter, he saw his DJ career come full circle when he guested on a radio show hosted by Monika Dietl, who played much of the music that inspired Van Dyk as an East Berlin teen. After developing his name in the club circuit, he hooked up with trance producer Cosmic Baby and produced his first single, "Perfect Day," under the name Visions Of Shiva. At the time, he had no formal musical training, but he developed strong studio skills out of necessity after Cosmic Baby split for a solo deal with Logic Records. "The collaboration with Cosmic was the first time I actually went to a studio. Still, at that point, I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. So at this point, I knew, 'Well, this is what I want to do.' And from then on, I learned everything I needed to know musically."

Van Dyk's third album, the much-anticipated Out There And Back, shows he's still at the top of his game eight years after his first single. Using breakbeats, vocals, and a hook-laden penchant for groove, he devises an impressionistic portrait of his life over the past few years. At times it's uplifting ("Together We Will Conquer," a song written for his wife Natasha), at other times embattled ("Another Way," a track written during Van Dyk's legal dispute with former Berlin dance label MFS). The album title itself refers to how personal experiences are transformed by technology. "The studio and everything which surrounds the studio, the house and me going somewhere, it's like everything is somewhat inspiring. And it's always back in the studio where the music is actually made. So this is why the album is titled Out There And Back. Because it reflects those two sides, both out of the studio and back in the studio."

A professed admirer of '80s pop groups like New Order, the Smiths, and Saint Etienne (who guest on this album's "The Riddle"), Van Dyk also recognizes the needs of his dance-floor fans. For the new album, he tested out more than 25 tracks during his DJ sets for audiences around the world. Over the years, his style has become synonymous with trance, but Van Dyk has repeatedly refuted any connection to a particular community, preferring that his music be judged on its own terms. "I'm really not that dogmatic with musical styles. I'm much more into atmospheres. I feel much more comfortable producing electronic music which will bring this emotion across. [Sticking to a particular style is] more like if you have a regular band, as an example. You have a drummer, you have a bass player and a guitarist. With electronic music, you have so much more possibilities."

One can't help but wonder whether a musician so concerned with atmospheres would like to extend his vision into other, extra-musical realms. Van Dyk admits that he's allured by the prospect of creating an immersive multimedia environment for his music, but ultimately, he's content with making the soundtracks. "I wouldn't really know how to make a warm, deep, bubbly bass or something--how do you actually visualize it?" he laughs. "But I truly believe what makes atmospheres come across is honesty. If you try and create some warm kind of thing and you don't feel it, it's never going to come across."