First of all, I have to say I'm glad he's back, and hope he's in good health. He's one of my favourite producers, and not because of Arisen (though it was the start of that). But not just back to trance, back to music. Whatever he made, he was great at it, and I hope to see him continue to make stuff.
Let's get this out of the way first - if the name Arksun wasn't attached, I would've said it's nice and moved on as soon as the track ended. I was never a huge fan of Anjuna uplifting anyways so I don't care for that part of it.
I won't comment on the style as I'm tired of uplifting, but what this is missing is a soul. It's nice, but his works were always unique to him, and he tried a lot of different stuff even. This feels like conforming to the genre, something he always said he wouldn't do, and what kept him from returning earlier. I'm missing his signature, which isn't a certain sound, but a feel.
People don't know what a brilliant sound-designer he is, and even though the sound design is good here, it's nothing new, it's what we heard before. Maybe he likes this kind of music and wants to make it, but somehow, I doubt that.
But let's be gentle here, this was a collab after all. You can't make 100% of the decisions in a collab, so maybe it's not all on him. Let's hope for some proper Arksun works of art. I hope he doesn't get discouraged by the feedback here - if he reads it.
Oh, and if he does, an MP3 of Desire would be a perfect late holiday gift.
What a perfect Arksun track.