Trivia
[Last update: January 17th 2025]
"So why did they call it..."
Opus 1: The Citrus Juicer
Opus 2: Black Snow
Opus 3: Airwave*
Opus 4: Such Is Life
Opus 5: Awakening
Opus 6-13: Symsonic* / Cosmomatic / Conspiracy / T.T.C. / Down From The Deep / Equilibrium / Passage To The Unknown / Still In My Mind**
Opus 14-15: Beats At Rank-1 Dotcom / After Me
Opus 16: Top Gear
Surprised? Top Gear was chosen as the flipside to Opus, but it existed as early as February (mostly likely even January) 2005 as Piet & Benno performed it at Trance Energy that year. They once explained that officially it wasn't going to see a release but the crowd response to it was so massive that they decided to release it after all. The reason for Opus' 17th existence might be that they needed a counterpart for Top Gear (not the other way around) and decided to go for a self-explanatory title. Fits their kinda humor, doesn't it? After Opus 17 they went on to create 24 more Opera (as of October 2024):
* In case you are wondering why they weren't mentioned: "Breathing", "It's Up To You", "Airwave (21st Century Mix)" and "Superstring" are alternatives/reworks to Airwave, Symsonic and Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 Remix) respectively, hence they don't count.
** Symsonic album tracks; exact completion order unknown
*** A collaboration with Sarah Bettens (nowadays Sam Bettens) was known to be in the works as early as 2008, which effectively renders the sequence of creation in this period difficult to tell!
**** Dreamstate 2017 Live tracks; exact completion order unknown
***** ASOT #950 Live tracks; exact completion order unknown
100? - 100 refers to its catalogue number: it was High Contrast Recordings' 100th milestone release. I haven't discovered any other '100' reference within the track myself yet. Anyone else have a clue?
7 Instead Of 8? - This one might be the trickiest self-explanatory track yet as it refers to a specific quality of the track's musical content, rather than its order. You see, the title refers to its time signature. Count the claps in the breakdown: as the melody loops you will count 14 (7), rather than 16 (8), the latter being more common in Electronic music.
13.11.11? - The 13.11.11 title = its release date (reversed for you nitpicky-nagging folks :P) = its exact BPM = its duration. That's about as High Concept as a Recording can get! A shame they didn't create a track between this one and Floorlifter because then 13.11.11 would have been their 31st Opus! :D
We Finally Met? - Piet, Benno, Marco and Benjamin had collaborated on an Untitled tune back in 2000 which they never released since they made it for fun primarily. However, in 2019 they decided to finally release an official track together, hence this (slightly misleading) title.
Chakra - Home (Rank 1 Remix)
Armin van Buuren & Rank 1 - The Greater Light To Rule The Night
A - Airwave | Awakening | After Me | And Then...
B - Black Snow | Breathing (Airwave) | Beats At Rank-1 Dotcom
C - Conspiracy | Cosmomatic
D - Down From The Deep | Destination
E - Equilibrium | Elements Of Nature
F - Floorlifter | Freudenrausch
G -
H -
I - It's Up To You (Symsonic)
J - Juno
K -
L - Life Less Ordinary | L.E.D. There Be Light
M -
N - No Name
O - Opus 17
P - Passage To The Unknown | Predictive Memory | Paris Nice Cannes
Q -
R -
S - Such Is Life | Symsonic | Still In My Mind | Symfo | Superstring
T - The Citrus Juicer | T.T.C. | Top Gear | This World Is Watching Me | The Great Escape | This World Is So Amazing | Transatlantic Communication | The Greater Light To Rule The Night
U -
V -
W - Witness | Wild And Perfect Day | We Finally Met
X -
Y -
Z - Zenith
Opus 18-19: Life Less Ordinary / This World Is Watching Me
Opus 20-26: And Then... / L.E.D. There Be Light / Symfo / The Great Escape / 100 / Witness / Wild And Perfect Day***
Opus 27: 7 Instead Of 8
Opus 28: Elements Of Nature
Opus 29: Floorlifter
Opus 30: 13.11.11
Opus 31: Freudenrausch
Opus 32: Juno
Opus 33: Zenith
Opus 34: This World Is So Amazing
Opus 35-36: No Name / Predictive Memory****
Opus 37: We Finally Met
Opus 38-39: Transatlantic Communication / Paris Nice Cannes*****
Opus 40: The Greater Light To Rule The Night
Opus 41: Destination
Opus 42: ???
* In case you are wondering why they weren't mentioned: "Breathing", "It's Up To You", "Airwave (21st Century Mix)" and "Superstring" are alternatives/reworks to Airwave, Symsonic and Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 Remix) respectively, hence they don't count.
** Symsonic album tracks; exact completion order unknown
*** A collaboration with Sarah Bettens (nowadays Sam Bettens) was known to be in the works as early as 2008, which effectively renders the sequence of creation in this period difficult to tell!
**** Dreamstate 2017 Live tracks; exact completion order unknown
***** ASOT #950 Live tracks; exact completion order unknown
100? - 100 refers to its catalogue number: it was High Contrast Recordings' 100th milestone release. I haven't discovered any other '100' reference within the track myself yet. Anyone else have a clue?
7 Instead Of 8? - This one might be the trickiest self-explanatory track yet as it refers to a specific quality of the track's musical content, rather than its order. You see, the title refers to its time signature. Count the claps in the breakdown: as the melody loops you will count 14 (7), rather than 16 (8), the latter being more common in Electronic music.
13.11.11? - The 13.11.11 title = its release date (reversed for you nitpicky-nagging folks :P) = its exact BPM = its duration. That's about as High Concept as a Recording can get! A shame they didn't create a track between this one and Floorlifter because then 13.11.11 would have been their 31st Opus! :D
We Finally Met? - Piet, Benno, Marco and Benjamin had collaborated on an Untitled tune back in 2000 which they never released since they made it for fun primarily. However, in 2019 they decided to finally release an official track together, hence this (slightly misleading) title.
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A Podcast Story About...
Chakra - Home (Rank 1 Remix)
From: The Space Brothers episode | May 13th 2022 [Head to 38:27]
The Space Brothers were celebrating their 25-year anniversary. As part of this Celebration, A State Of Trance' Twitter account asked fans to send in questions for Ricky Simmonds and Stephen Jones so Ruben could ask them these questions during the ASOT podcast. One such question was sent by yours truly: "Could they consider retrospectively release Chakra - Home (Rank 1 Remix)?*".
They jokingly said 'no' at first but then got serious and said that they don't have a copy of it anymore so they themselves could not get it rolling but they believed Benno still has one (and Benno does, since he and Piet revealed it on A State Of Trance #147 in 2004 and also during Rank 1's Radio Rush #005 in 2010). So if someone would get Benno to send them a copy, they could release it!! Now if only someone could get a campaign going to convince Benno to send his recording to them...
* A little context for those who don't know, back around 2000 (or perhaps 2001), Rank 1 were asked to remix Chakra - Home: Chakra is one of Ricky and Stephen's many aliases. The guys finished the remix and sent it back to the label who wanted them to make the break shorter. Piet & Benno went back to the studio to make the adjustment but they didn't like the result. No agreement could be found and as a result this Rank 1 Remix was never released. Piet & Benno first revealed it to the world on A State Of Trance Episode 147, an XXL special in which Armin invited them over to his studio so he could interview them and they could showcase some obscure work as well as soon to be released new (co-)productions. The guys also played it as the "Retro Record" on the 5th episode of their own Radioshow Rank 1's Radio Rush, back in August 2010.
Alex M.O.R.P.H. vs. Rank 1 - Life Less Ordinary
They jokingly said 'no' at first but then got serious and said that they don't have a copy of it anymore so they themselves could not get it rolling but they believed Benno still has one (and Benno does, since he and Piet revealed it on A State Of Trance #147 in 2004 and also during Rank 1's Radio Rush #005 in 2010). So if someone would get Benno to send them a copy, they could release it!! Now if only someone could get a campaign going to convince Benno to send his recording to them...
* A little context for those who don't know, back around 2000 (or perhaps 2001), Rank 1 were asked to remix Chakra - Home: Chakra is one of Ricky and Stephen's many aliases. The guys finished the remix and sent it back to the label who wanted them to make the break shorter. Piet & Benno went back to the studio to make the adjustment but they didn't like the result. No agreement could be found and as a result this Rank 1 Remix was never released. Piet & Benno first revealed it to the world on A State Of Trance Episode 147, an XXL special in which Armin invited them over to his studio so he could interview them and they could showcase some obscure work as well as soon to be released new (co-)productions. The guys also played it as the "Retro Record" on the 5th episode of their own Radioshow Rank 1's Radio Rush, back in August 2010.
Alex M.O.R.P.H. vs. Rank 1 - Life Less Ordinary
From: MRPHLNDR episode | June 14th 2024 [Head to 26:58]
Woody was involved with releasing Rank 1's Airwave on Clubgroove and one day he approached them about doing a collaboration with Alex. Alex had just made a demo which contained the Electro-driven core of what would eventually become Life Less Ordinary. Rank 1 agreed to the collab and added the iconic string arrangement. Now Alex and Woody instantly fell in love with the final product but the Rank 1 guys and the label (ID&T?) weren't crazy about it in the beginning.
At some point, Woody gave the demo to Ferry Corsten who had a gig at Cream in Ibiza. Ferry asked what key it was but Woody didn't know so Ferry just dropped it and when he did, the place went absolutely nuts. This was the part that convinced Dick de Groot and Rank 1 that perhaps it would be a good idea to release this track as a single after all because it looked like this was going to be HUGE! initially they felt it worked best as an album track and so they didn't back it as a single but that Ferry gig changed everything!
At the time it was quite revolutionary as it was one of the first true Electro Trance bangers to take the Trance scene by storm. Alex intended it as an album track himself, he wasn't convinced it would become a huge hit but it went on to be massively supported by big DJs everywhere.
At some point, Woody gave the demo to Ferry Corsten who had a gig at Cream in Ibiza. Ferry asked what key it was but Woody didn't know so Ferry just dropped it and when he did, the place went absolutely nuts. This was the part that convinced Dick de Groot and Rank 1 that perhaps it would be a good idea to release this track as a single after all because it looked like this was going to be HUGE! initially they felt it worked best as an album track and so they didn't back it as a single but that Ferry gig changed everything!
At the time it was quite revolutionary as it was one of the first true Electro Trance bangers to take the Trance scene by storm. Alex intended it as an album track himself, he wasn't convinced it would become a huge hit but it went on to be massively supported by big DJs everywhere.
Armin van Buuren & Rank 1 - The Greater Light To Rule The Night
A State Of Trance FOREVER episode | September 29th 2021 [Head to 18:34]
Armin had just released his album A State Of Trance Forever and to celebrate he gave an interview on each track with the respective collaborating artist. Ruben asked them why it took so long for them to do an official Armin vs. Rank 1 collab follow-up to This World Is Watching Me. Benno explained they were so busy with other stuff so it didn't really come to pass sooner. What didn't help is that the Rank 1 project was more or less on a pause for a while. Armin remarked they grabbed the JP8000 from the attic and started messing with it and they also played around on the JP8080. The JP8000 was used for no less than the timeless Out Of The Blue as well the iconic Airwave. Benno actually visited Ferry's studio after the latter made Out Of The Blue and he was instantly impressed with the JP8000! Both agreed there is a strong emotional feeling to this instrument that makes it truly Trance.
The origin of Armin and Benno's partnership stems from that first collaboration they did back in 2006. It was an obvious choice to do This World Is Watching Me because Armin asked Rank 1 to perform live during Armin Only 2006. Benno originally didn't like the chorus for This World Is Watching Me so they used the verses/bridge instead, according to Armin! Armin felt it was the hardest collaboration they ever did because they had to get used to each other.
The title came from something Armin read online "The Greater Light To Rule The Day" but Armin felt Night made more sense than Day, and it was also a sort of reference to Rank 1's L.E.D. There Be Light (which is something you would exclaim when there is darkness, hence The Greater Light To Rule The Night)
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Random Trivia
Did you know that by 2023, Rank 1 have covered 16/26 letters of the alphabet in the first letters of their own productions? See below:A - Airwave | Awakening | After Me | And Then...
B - Black Snow | Breathing (Airwave) | Beats At Rank-1 Dotcom
C - Conspiracy | Cosmomatic
D - Down From The Deep | Destination
E - Equilibrium | Elements Of Nature
F - Floorlifter | Freudenrausch
G -
H -
I - It's Up To You (Symsonic)
J - Juno
K -
L - Life Less Ordinary | L.E.D. There Be Light
M -
N - No Name
O - Opus 17
P - Passage To The Unknown | Predictive Memory | Paris Nice Cannes
Q -
R -
S - Such Is Life | Symsonic | Still In My Mind | Symfo | Superstring
T - The Citrus Juicer | T.T.C. | Top Gear | This World Is Watching Me | The Great Escape | This World Is So Amazing | Transatlantic Communication | The Greater Light To Rule The Night
U -
V -
W - Witness | Wild And Perfect Day | We Finally Met
X -
Y -
Z - Zenith
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