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Ferry Corsten

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ferry Corsten was born in Rotterdam in 1973. As a child he listened to radio programmes featuring disco, soul and electronic music, and he bought the records he liked. At fifteen he DJed for the first time, at school parties. By washing cars and selling homemade mixtapes he saved up for his first synthesizer. In the Rotterdam of the 1990s he first made gabber and hardcore, and later house and trance. Meanwhile he trained as an electrical engineer.

Music and breakthrough

Corsten worked under many different names. As Moonman he reached the UK chart in 1996 with Don't Be Afraid. In 1997 he started the label Tsunami with Robert Smit. The big breakthrough came in 1999 as System F, with Out of the Blue, a worldwide trance hit. That same year, with Tiësto as Gouryella he made the hits Gouryella and Walhalla, and with Vincent de Moor as Veracocha the track Carte Blanche. He became a sought-after remixer, for U2, Moby and William Orbit, among others. His remix of Adagio for Strings won an award, and his mix CD in Ministry of Sound's Trance Nation series was a great success.

Influence

Corsten makes melodic electronic dance music in which synthesizer melodies play the leading role. Like Tiësto and Armin van Buuren, he was one of the Dutch DJs who reached the top of the world scene. In 2004 and 2005 he was ranked fifth on DJ Mag's list of best DJs. Later he broadened his style to progressive house. In 2022 he was made an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Out of the Blue by System F and notice how it builds. Hear how the track grows layer by layer and how the synthesizer melody becomes the recognisable centrepiece.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsDutch trance