Fanart
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[Last update: November 10th 2023]
One could say that "talent attracts talent"! As Piet & Benno's mesmerizing music has touched millions of souls over the last three decades, some have turned that appreciation for their music into art of their own. This section has been created to celebrate that dynamic in which the Rank 1 guys are the central focus of course, but the art provided comes from completely different talented people! Enjoy this gallery! [Last update: august 6th 2020]
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Suzich_q
If you would ask me what my definition of trance would be, I would have always given you the same answer – Rank 1's music! Rank 1 are one of those legendary artists which can't fall into oblivion even if they don't have any new releases for a while; they are one of the pillars of classic trance and have the most unique, energetic and mesmerazing live shows. I think that the vast majority of trance fans would unisono conclude that their „Airwave“ is the trance classic of all time! Before they took the name Rank 1, older trance fans as myself knew them as R.O.O.S., Pedro & Benno, Two Disciples, A.I.D.A., System Eight, and other aliases. Their remixes under Bervoets & De Goeij moniker are unbeatable and I still hold dearly Nudge and Shouter's (Tunnel Allstars) „Blue Lagoon“ and Cygnus X's „Orange Theme“ remixes as one of the best made ever by Rank 1. Just everything they would touch, it would have turned to pure gold – I don't even have to mention their timeless hits like „Airwave“, „Awakening“, „Such Is Life“, „Citrus Juicer“, „Beats at Rank-1 Dotcom“, and their, at least to me, greatest remix of all time - „Superstring“ of Cygnus X, which was also the very first Sensation's anthem. Seeing them playing „Airwave“ live on VIVA Club Rotation, which was popular in Croatia back in the days, I just couldn't help but fall instantly in love with these serious looking but insanely talented trance boys! And the video for the track itself was so gorgeous and futuristic: both dressed in white, in a white surrounding, flying through the snowy mountains with the help of VR machines – everything looked so sleek and pure, and with that heavenly sound and melody of the track, one would truly think they were not from this planet.
Tracks like „Cosmomatic“ and „Down From The Deep“ just prove this as they could easily pass under a soundtrack for a sci-fi movie. As I stopped following trance that much around 2006-ish or so, I wasn't even aware they had amazing newer (to me) releases as Floorlifter, 13.11.11, Witness, The Great Escape...I caught only timeless L.E.D. There Be Light. It was only after I had major surgery at the end of 2014 and recovery for 7 months that I had time for music - I needed an escape, but music is also proven to have a healing power so I got back to my beloved genre and started to follow ASOT regularly. In 2015 I've basically rediscovered Rank 1 when they released „Juno“ together with M.I.K.E. Push - and it felt like 1999 again! The hype was the same as back in the days, with even two of my legends featured together in one track. And although trance changed a lot over the years, „Juno“ still had that classic, majestic feel and was revealing the whole epicness and talent of Rank 1. I was drawing a lot at that time (I love to draw graphite realistic pencil portraits) and after the relase of „Juno“, it just came natural to me to draw Rank 1 as they were my all time favorite trance artists. Announcing this major drawing project of mine back then on my instagram profile, quoting lyrics of their old megahit „It's Up To You (Symsonic)“ with Shanokee, I wrote: „It's time to draw The Greatest Of All!“, not even daring to imagine they would ever knew for my existence, let alone that I would end up recognized by Rank 1 themselves as one of their biggest fans ever!
[Here is the story behind the gorgeous picture she drew for her prized Rank 1 shirt!]
This artwork drew lots of attention of other Rank 1 and trance fans all over virtual world / social platforms and this is how I came across Razormane and this blog as well. Namely, I tweeted my artwork during Piet's set at ASOT 700 Mexico, Razormane saw it (and Rank 1 too :D) and this is how we got connected through our mutual Rank 1 fandom and overall love for trance music. As the ASOT 750 NL was approaching slowly, Armin started announcing the line up, and at one point announced Rank 1 (Piet's DJ set) - and it was a „OMG RANK 1!!!“ mega moment for me! I decided to finally see both famous ASOT show and Rank 1, and I spent the whole week before the event finishing artwork of them in Ps, practicing newly discovered Wacom tablet, and then got it printed on the shirt. I actually scanned the drawing, added fully black background and drew Rank 1 lettering and all other logos in Ps. And I rocked that shirt through Jaarbeurs proudly! Nobody thought at first it was a drawing, but a photo - my own Trance Family from Croatia was in complete awe and I got lots of compliments from other trance and Rank 1 fans as well, and not to mention even Benno liked it on Twitter so all of that meant the world to me. Sometimes you're not even aware of your talent and think it's nothing special because you know it can always be better! As Rank 1 would say themselves – we are still in the process of learning and developing and haven't arrived there, because perfection, as an ideal, is always out of reach ;)
[Here is Suzy wearing her awesome shirt and posing with Croatian Trance Family folks]
Later in March they published my artwork on their own FB page and almost gave me a heart attack - I just couldn't believe my drawing was there <3! Later on I decided to send them my artwork but as I used new fixative which was crumbly, in my attempts to save the drawing, it ended up ruined – but I didn't give up! I challenged myself and drew them again which was cool because it was two years later than that first artwork and I could compare the level of my skills:
Also, I couldn't believe it was finally with them as I thought they definitely deserved to have a decent (latest) artwork from a talented fan! As they are themselves perfectionists and creative, I found my creative force within them (and Benno's other project with Armin, GAIA, but that surely deserves separate post). They were kinda experimental in later phase and loved anything analogue (there's nothing like Analog Feel ;)), combined with digital. Back then, when they published my drawing, I lived shortly in Ireland, Dublin, and attended Dublin's Institute of Design graphic design course so I was drawing a lot again, this time making and developing complicated concepts and ideas, facing creative blocks but also sudden inspirations. And as I had short deadlines and had to do stuff in a complete rush, I had Rank 1's Trance Energy 2000, 2002 and Sensation 2001 live set basically on repeat as a background music so they would give me lots of drive and energy to finish stuff in time. As I loved their track „Witness“ which features singer Jaren, she gave me heads up regarding one crucial project, posting a message for me from Hope character she was playing in that video - and it worked as well :D! It was actually her dress which started an avalanche of amazing ideas and it ended up as my most praised project of the course.
Their solo portraits were again a step higher in my skills level as I decided to experiment a bit, combining sketchy style in drawing clothes and the rest, whilst the face was realistic. Then after some time I drew Benno again because I had an accident – colored pastel drawing got sticked to his portrait so learned my lesson in a hard way to not ever mix pencil drawings with colored in the same portfolio book:
This time the time difference between two portraits I drew from the same photo was 3 years and again it was great to compare the older and newer drawing. Over time I also learned which pencils are the best and which ones work for me, and also bought a lot more artistic stuff what also affected the quality of my drawings. Maybe this is one of the reasons why producers rework their own tracks after some time - they want to refresh them but also see how the track would sound now, when they own much more gear and when their skills have leveled up.
The last portrait was truly lots of fun as I firstly made a timelapse video of process of drawing, with their track „Awakening“ as a background music: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B1zN1Z0AJ_S/
and then finished the artwork slowly, fine tuning it in order to give it those final detailed touches. The style was again sketchy combined with realistic. And I think it's actually my best portrait I made to this day and it's proudly hanging on my wall:
My dream finally came true in February this year [2020]: I was at ASOT 950 NL and finally saw their incredible live performance for which they are so famous for and it was the best thing I ever experienced <3!!
And what more to say to conclude this story than that I'm truly proud my art ended up here on the Rank 1 fanblog, as well as on their own page (and home!), so I hope you'll love it too! And stay tuned as there will be more Rank 1 art accompanied with stories ;)
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