Paul Van Dyk

Disc jockey and trance music pioneer Matthias Paul (best known under his stage name, Paul van Dyk) was born in Eisenhüttenstadt, East Germany in 1971. The media was heavily regulated in communist East Germany during his childhood; as a result, Paul had to resort to extreme means to hear Western music - in high school, he often illegally tuned into American radio stations broadcast from West Germany and purchased cassette tapes smuggled into the country. Though his family was able to leave East Germany shortly before the fall of the Berlin wall, Paul elected to move to Berlin in 1990 to pursue a musical career.

Paul became a fixture in the burgeoning Berlin trance scene, headlining popular events and becoming one of the city’s most popular disc jockeys. His popularity began to explode nationwide after an appearance on German television in 1993. After releasing a number of independent albums throughout the very early 1990’s, Paul released his first full-length trance album 45 RPM in 1994, quickly following it up with his second album Seven Ways in 1996. Both albums were initially confined to a Germany-only release until 1998, when electronic label Mute Records (Moby, Depeche Mode) opted to release both in the United States.

His third album Out There and Back received a worldwide release in 2000. A two-disc double album, it is widely hailed by critics as his best album. It produced a number of singles, including "Another Way" and "Tell Me Why (The Riddle)", his highest charting song on the UK Singles Chart to date. He released his next album, Grammy-nominated Reflections, in late 2003. Standout tracks from the album include "Nothing But You", "Time of Our Lives", and "Crush".

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