Paul van Dyk

Paul van Dyk began the new century with accolades under his belt fresh from the last one: Best Music Maker (DJ Magazine), Best International DJ (Muzik, Ministry), 2nd and 5th respectively in the Mixmag and DJ top 100 DJ polls. Number 1 in his native Germany.

Another Way / Avenue, the first single from his album Out There And Back reached number 13 in the CIN chart during November of 1999.

The compendium of his remixes Vorsprung Dyk Technik went silver (60k in the UK) during the same period and the three tunes he remixed over the year (Humates Love Stimulation, Faithless’ Bring My Family Back and Blank & Jones Cream) all went top 40:All 3 topped the RM Club chart and CIN dance chart.

The second single from Out There And Back, Tell Me Why, reached number 7 in the UK top 40 at the start of May 2000 and went on to become one of the summers anthems.

It featured the lush vocals of St Etienne’s Sarah Cracknell, 8 very different mixes all by PVD and a plush video, shot in Vitra Design Museum (Weil, Sth Germany), decked out with Verner Panton’s colourful and surrealist lounge landscapes.

Out There And Back, released in May 2000 and his first artist album since 1996’s Seven Ways went straight in at number 12 in the UK album chart.

A regular at festivals across the globe this year has seen Paul already headline at the massive Creamfields event at Knebworth as well as release the dark and moody Columbia EP featuring a couple of new tracks suggesting a return to his club roots.

A residency at NYC’s Twilo as well as a block booked DJ schedule keel him busy yet somehow he also manages to host a weekly radio show on Germanys largest Radio Fritz…somehow he manages to record, engineer, write and produce all his own tunes.

So where did it alls start? Rewind a few years to Eisenh in the old East Germany under a restrictive social policy and an even more restrictive approach to western music.

While most of the East somehow survived via beat up recordings of Elton John and The Beatles, Paul spent the last few years of East Germany developing, but unable to feed, a growing appetite for house music which he first heard on western radio in 1995.

He taught himself to mix on two fucked up old turntables and a very old mixer, however like many of his fellow compatriots his musical ambitions looked set to remain as distant dreams.

Seismic political shifts in the late ‘80’s eventually saw the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and with it a freedom of movement not seen for almost half a century in East Germany. Like many creative refugees in the East Paul headed to Berlin, the natural destination for someone so infatuated with the electronic beat. Armed only with a selection of primitive mix tapes Paul began Djing in 1991.

Within a couple of years Paul had established himself in Berlin with his unique blend of uplifting trance and progressive house. He became resident at Dubmission in E-Werk yet within a few months Paul had developed aspirations beyond the turntables.

Paul’s first studio excursions resulted in the Visions Of Shiva project, cooked up with keyboard maestro Cosmic Baby, unleashing two acclaimed singles, Perfect Day and How Much Can You Take. Visions faded but Paul went on to become a recording artist in his own right, debuting in 1994 with Green Valley EP and the RPM album.

Demand also grew for his talents as a remixer and from 1993 onwards he remixed the likes of U2, New Order, Tori Amos and unlikely Madchester herberts Inspiral Carpets. Year on year his reputation grew both across Europe and in the US where he eventually signed to Mute Records US where he has gone on to become a huge draw on the ever developing US dance scene.

The last year has seen him developing ideas for his forthcoming album, due in 2002 as well as consolidating his enviable position as one of the world’s biggest names in dance music.

Paul van Dyks music is informed as much by the touching melancholy of New Order and The Smiths, bands he used to listen to in the east, as by the house and techno that led him up the road to Berlin and beyond.

His records are informed by the knowledge that electronic music must convey emotion if it is to swerve anonymity and earn the love of a broad public rather than the casual attention of a one-night stand club crowd. His Deviant releases represent the foundations of a body of work, which will long outlive even the cream of any of this years fashionable dance genre.

Unarguably the biggest DJ in Germany, probably the biggest DJ in the world he maintains his homebase in Berlin, but wherever you are, he’ll be with you soon.

Find out more at www.paulvandyk.de