Artist(s)
Airbase
Release title
Escape / For The Fallen
Label name
Intuition Recordings
Release year
2006

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Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,913 Posts
2,809 Thanked
Fell in love with Escape on first listen (ASOT Classics 7 I think). What a track!
 
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dmgtz96

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
2,640 Posts
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It should be noted that Airbase was one of the creators of trance.nu, the popular trance website that shut down in late 2010 and was basically trancefix's predecessor.
Apart from being a good trance artist, he also contributed a lot to trance as a whole.
 

Julian Del Agranda

Elite Member
Jul 3, 2020
1,583 Posts
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Yeah ok he was a mod. Thats a bit different than founder.

Anyway, Escape is great. I think I rate ‘genie’ even higher though. Both in my top 100, just like Medusa :)
 

dmgtz96

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
2,640 Posts
1,499 Thanked
Yeah ok he was a mod. Thats a bit different than founder.

He's a web designer. He probably wasn't involved much with the original development of trance.nu (because the site predates his addition to the trance.nu team), but he likely developed additional features for the site. That's beyond mod-level responsibilities, even more so in the early 2000s.
I don't know if there's any documentation as to what he actually did, though, so he could very well have been just a mod.
 
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Julian Del Agranda

Elite Member
Jul 3, 2020
1,583 Posts
1,824 Thanked
Regardless of his actual role on the forum, it was always great to see a "real" producer on there. Just responding like everyone else, and even posting some production tips and feedback. Great guy.
 

Julian Del Agranda

Elite Member
Jul 3, 2020
1,583 Posts
1,824 Thanked
Awesome! I think I've never seen a talking Airbase. I've heard one, in his tutorials. But I haven't seen one. Ha.

Love this guy and his music. Really one of my favorite "known" trance guys. Such a great personality. He downgrades anything he did a little too much though. He shouldn't do that though. He's such a great talent. Seems like he wouldn't put himself in a top 500 trance producers. He has to realize many trance fans would list him as top 10 or at least top 20 trance producers of all time.
 
Aug 23, 2022
110 Posts
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I'm not that familiar with Jezper Joakim Söderlund's work, as he only really started producing in 2002, and I'm more knowledgeable when it comes to early to late 90s trance tracks. That being said, I know some of his creations, including Genie (and its Michael Splint vs. F&W Remix), Medusa, Escape, Pandemonium, and Tangerine. Escape definitely has a unique melody (as pointed out before me) and possibly high production values, but somehow it never managed to resonate with me on any meaningful level.

To me, it feels like a track that never really manages to 'pop' and grab me with its melody; it always stays in the background and never really gets going, and feels homogeneous all the way through. This is quite the opposite of what I expect to feel from a melancholic/uplifting trance tune. On the other hand, tracks like Magic Waters (2004) by Ace Da Brain and Arisen (2006) from Arksun (both from the same era and style) manage to move me deeply, putting me into a different emotional state and mindset.

I think the only Airbase production so far that stands out to me is Jezper's first single release, Genie (2002), and I might even consider it one of the all-time greats. However, this one is also a little bit problematic in a way that it feels like somewhere in the middle between a more classic 7:00-8:30 long 'club' track and an 8:30-10:00 long uplifting/melancholic, atmospheric tune, yet it's 11:32 long, which puts it into the same league as some of the monumental works that really put you onto a musical and spiritual journey (e.g., Mystic Force - Symphonik, Sunday Club - Paladian Dawn, and Li Kwan - Point Zero). The point is Genie is just too long for what it is trying to achieve, or another way to put it is that it simply doesn't have the depth and/or variety required to last close to 12 minutes.