Ferry Corsten

Ferry Corsten
Ferry Corsten live in Toronto.
Background information
Birth name	Ferry Corsten
Also known as	Ferr, System F, Moonman (more)
Born	4 December 1973 (1973-12-04) (age 37)
Origin	Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Genres	Trance
Occupations	DJ, Producer, Remixer
Years active	1989 – present
Labels	Positiva Records Tsunami Records Flashover Recordings Ultra Records
Associated acts	Gouryella, Vimana (more)
Website	www.ferrycorsten.com

Ferry Corsten, also known under the alias System F, (born 4 December 1973 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands) is a Dutch producer of trance music, in addition to being a DJ and remixer. He also hosts his own weekly radio show, Corsten's Countdown. He routinely plays at events all over the world with crowds in excess of tens of thousands. On 28 October 2009, DJ Magazine announced the results of their annual Top 100 DJ Poll, placing Corsten at #7.^[1]

History

1989–1999: Early years

Ferry Corsten produced and remixed under many aliases since the release of his first record at the age of sixteen,^[2] but he officially started to work as a musician when he was 27 years old. As a teenager he would listen to his father's record player and he would save money to buy his first keyboard by washing cars, and selling mixed tapes to kids in his neighbourhood. He later began to perform live performances with a friend and won his first award "De Grote Prijs van Nederland" at Holland in 1989.^[3] He eventually released a record with a couple of friends when he was just sixteen years old and later began releasing self-made productions while he grew up in Rotterdam in the 1990s, producing underground hardcore gabber tracks, later expanding into club-house and trance music. His first single to reach a chart position was "Don't Be Afraid" under the alias Moonman, which was only the start for becoming a composer as well. In 1997 Corsten and his partner Robert Smit established a dance label named Tsunami with the Dutch based dance company Purple Eye Entertainment b.v., this junction made the creation of another label possible; Polar State.^[4] Ferry Corsten was studying to become an Electrical Engineer, so he went to the Technical Training School and after that Higher Technical Education.^[5]

1999–2002: Rise to fame

In February 1999 Corsten's second solo project, System F, was released on the Tsunami imprint along with the album Out of the Blue, including the same-named melodic tune that became a hit on dance floors all over the world, achieving a top twenty position in the United Kingdom single chart. The follow up single was "Cry", produced together with Robert Smit which reached the UK Top 20.^[6]

His growing popularity in the late 1990s led to cooperation with many famous trance DJs and musicians like DJ Tiësto (Gouryella, Vimana), Vincent de Moor (Veracocha), and Robert Smit (Starparty). The track "Gouryella" by the act Gouryella was released in May, the single entered the UK Singles Top 75 at number fifteen and achieved various hit positions throughout the world. The next single was entitled "Walhalla" which entered the UK single chart at number twenty-seven. In 1999 Ferry was elected as producer of the year at the Ericsson Muzik Award in London.^[7] In September 2000 the third Gouryella single entitled "Tenshi" was released. In 2000, Corsten also remixed William Orbit's "Adagio for Strings" as well as "New Year's Day" for U2. His remix of Barber's "Adagio For Strings" was awarded at the Dancestar 2000 awards. The Ministry of Sound dance compilation series entitled Trance Nation became one of the best selling dance compilations in the UK and was awarded the platinum status.^[8] In 2000 in his home country Corsten got awarded the Silver Harp award for his numerous outstanding contributions made to Dutch dance music.

In 2001 Ferry contributed to remix projects of tracks by Japanese superstar Ayumi Hamasaki. He went on to compose and arrange her heavily trance-based song "Connected," which was released in 2003, along with remixes, as a single in Germany which has sold 4 million copies to date, making this Ferry's most successful song to date.^[9]

Ferry Corsten is the electronic dance music artist with the highest amount of dance singles in the UK charts. He currently has 10 gold singles, between those his 1999 remix of "Madagascar", "Out of the Blue" as his alias System F, both "Gouryella" and "Walhalla" in 2000, "Cry" and the "Dance Valley Theme" in 2001 with "Exhale" which is his latest as System F with Armin van Buuren; and his 2003-2004 singles "Punk" and "Rock Your Body Rock".

In 2004 he launched his first album as Ferry Corsten, Right of Way, in Heineken Musical Hall with 4,500 clubbers at his eight-hour set.^[10] The music video of the song was nominated in the TMF Dutch MTV Awards in Netherlands. The album spawned three singles, "Punk" (UK #29), "Rock Your Body, Rock" (UK #11), and "It's Time" (UK #51).

2005–2007: L.E.F.

Ferry Corsten performing at a concert in El Salvador in September 2006

In 2005, Corsten founded his own record label, titled Flashover Recordings and released his album L.E.F. in 2006. His track "Fire" was nominated in the best trance video category for the^[11] 2006 Trance Awards.

On 18 April 2007 Corsten was featured in a global satellite radio first when he was live in over 130 countries on WorldSpace Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, AOL and Direct TV. On 4 July 2007, Corsten debuted his new weekly radio show titled "Corsten's Countdown" which counts down a list of the highest voted trance tracks.

He was dubbed the King of Crossover in an August 2007 interview on UK clubbing website HarderFaster.net, reflecting his recent L.E.F. (Loud Electronic Ferocious) style, which some hail as a new direction in dance music. Corsten describes it as "everything from electro house, trance and techno".

2008–2009: Twice In A Blue Moon

Ferry Corsten's third and newest album, Twice In A Blue Moon, which made its debut at the 2nd edition of the Full On Ferry event at Ahoy in Rotterdam, was released on 1 November 2008. The first single from the album, “Radio Crash”, has been played by Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Above & Beyond and many other DJ's globally. The track has been a huge hit in clubs across the world and gave Ferry a good start in promoting his new album.

2009-present: Twice In A Blue Moon (Remix Edition)

Ferry's latest album consists of remixes of the previous album (Twice In A Blue Moon). It includes remixes by Rafael Frost, Lange, Ummet Ozcan, Markus Schulz and many more. Many of these remixes were not made available to the private parties that his management approved prior to the release of the new album.

Pseudonyms

Aliases

A Jolly Good Fellow, Albion, Bypass, Cyber F, Eon, Exiter, Ferr, Firmly Underground, Free Inside, Kinky Toys, Lunalife, Moonman, Pulp Victim, Pulse, Raya Shaku, Riptide, Sidewalk, Sidewinder, Skywalker, System F, Tellurians, The NutterCiaran Donegan

Collaborations

Discodroids (with Peter Nijborn) Gouryella (with Tiësto), Veracocha (with Vincent de Moor), Vimana (with Tiësto), FB (with Benny Benassi)

Discography

Studio albums

Selected Remixes

• Apoptygma Berzerk - Kathy's Song
• Armand Van Helden - Witch Doktor (Free Inside Remix)
• Art of Trance - Madagascar
• Ayumi Hamasaki - A Song for XX
• Ayumi Hamasaki - Kanariya
• Ayumi Hamasaki - WHATEVER
• Bobina - Invisible Touch (Ferry Corsten's Touch)
• BT - Suddenly (Ferry Corsten's Fix)
• Corderoy - Sweetest Dreams (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Cosmic Gate - The Truth (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Duran Duran - Reach Up For The Sunrise (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Elles de Graaf - Show You My World
• Embrace - Embrace
• Every Little Thing - For The Moment
• Faithless feat. Boy George - Why Go (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Girl Next Door - Jōnetsu no Daishō
• Kai Tracid - Conscious (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Kamaya Painters - Endless Wave (Albion Remix)
• The Killers - Human
• Klubbheads - Klubbhopping (A Jolly Good
• Marco Borsato - De Bestemming (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Markus Schulz - Do You Dream (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Matt Darey presents Mash Up - Liberation (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Mind One - Hurt Of Intention (Ferry Corsten Fix)
• Moby - In My Heart
• Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad
• Nelly Furtado – Do It (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Novastar - Because The Remix
• Oceanlab - Clear Blue Water
• Public Enemy - Bring the Noise
• Rafaël Frost - Red
• Ramin Djawadi - Prison Break Theme (Ferry Corsten Breakout Remix)
• Rank 1 - Awakening (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Shiny Toy Guns - Le Disko (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Solarstone-Late Summer Fields(Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Tiësto - Kaleidoscope (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Tony Walker - Field of Joy
• U2 - New Year's Day
• William Orbit - Barber's Adagio for Strings
• William Orbit - Ravel's Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte (Ferry Corsten Remix)
• Yoji Biomehanika - Theme From Bangin' Globe (System F Remix)

Recognitions

See also

• Flashover Recordings
• Gouryella
• Veracocha

References

External links

• Official Site
• Artist Site at Ultra Records
• Clubplanet Interviews Ferry Corsten
• TranceSound interview, April 2010
• TranceSound interview, July 2007