“Stop! In the name of trance”
Having been around for more than a decade as the UK's finest trance group, as well as founding the massive trance and progressive record label, Anjunabeats, Above & Beyond opened a new chapter as trance music visionaries with the release of their sophomore album, Group Therapy, in 2011. At face value, Group Therapy was a success for its infectious hits like “Thing Called Love,” “You Got To Go,” and the ubiquitous “Sun and Moon,” but Group Therapy‘s substantial reason for its critical acclaim was that it embodied the second-to-none camaraderie that trance fans all over the world have for each other (colloquially identifying themselves as the #TranceFamily).
In the years after its release, Above & Beyond's career would focus on the spirit that Group Therapy set: they succeeded their long-running radio show, Trance Around The World, with the redesigned Group Therapy Radio, and amongst the numerous tours of DJ sets, they also embarked on a special tour of performing acoustic renditions of their music — this would also spawn their album, Acoustic, earlier this year. But though the trio stayed busy throughout the years, the one thing that listeners were still sitting on the edge of their seat for was the next release of theirs; an aspect that Above & Beyond were fairly tight-lipped about, until now.
After a couple premieres of new songs, Above & Beyond have now announced the follow-up album to Group Therapy, entitled We Are All We Need, will be coming out on January 20, 2015. It's easy to see that the theme of this album will continue the theme of the importance of positive connection with one another, with the album being named after the track “We're All We Need,” an ode to friendship that features the vocal talent of longtime A&B collaborator, Zoe Johnston.
We Are All We Need is currently available for pre-order, and by pre-ordering the album, you will get to immediately download the two tracks that have already premiered from the album, “Blue Sky Action” and “Sticky Fingers.” While not everything is known about the album (they've agonizingly hidden most of the details on the pre-order page), what is known is that fellow Anjunabeats producer Andrew Bayer was the right-hand man in the production of this album, and it also features guest vocals from Zoe Johnston, Alex Vargas, and Justine Suissa. You'll notice that Mr. Sun and Moon, Richard Bedford, is not included, but perhaps Above & Beyond are going to surprise us with that announcement later on — one can only hope.
In the meantime, check out the two songs from the album here:
