Like three peas in a rare trance pod, it seems trio Jono Grant, Tony Mcguiness and Paavo Siljamaki of ‘Above and Beyond’ were born to make music together.
Like three peas in a rare trance pod, it seems trio Jono Grant, Tony Mcguiness and Paavo Siljamaki of ‘Above and Beyond’ were born to make music together. Tight progressive DJs, the trio are applauded for creating sleek rhythms, lush, rich filmic textures and managing to sound experimental while harking back to an older tradition of song making. This is a style ‘Above and Beyond’ capture in their sets, but most brilliantly in their productions. Unlike most DJs, Jono, Tony and Paavo had a DJing career after becoming known producers, not to do anything by halves though, ‘Above and Beyond’ played their first sets to 8000 people in Tokyo, alongside God of Trance Tiesto and Ferry Corsten.
Having found Above and Beyond in 2000, the boys have had startling success, building steadily on the studio success of their Anjunabeats label. The boys enjoyed early success with their BIG tune remix of Chakra's "Home", selected by Pete Tong, theirs was chosen over remixes by Rob Searle and Tilt to be the A side mix, and after plays on Pete Tong reached number one in the UK club charts.
Relatively unknown before, ‘Above and Beyond’ launched into a number of exciting and diverse collaboration projects such as Oceanlab, Tranquility Base and Tongue of God with Jeff Buckley, but it is their own productions that reveal what the boys are really about .
First album Tri-State received high praise and was a triumph for trance artists everywhere as its depth and originality crossed musical boundaries and found its way into the ears of people all over.
‘Air for Life, one of the singles from the album, went on to win “Best Underground Track” at the 2006 Miami Winter Conference and was tune of the year for 2005, as voted by listeners of Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance Radio show. Alone Tonight (featuring Richard Bedford) was nominated for best progressive house/trance track at the 22nd International Dance Music Awards held at the 2007 Miami WMC, reaching number 4 in the Finland National Singles chart and number 5 in the UK Dance Chart. There are too many more awards to mention, needless to say don’t miss out!