MARKUS SCHULZ

Forged in the fires of Arizona’s seminal and storied 90s rave scene, Schulz went state, then national and international with equal pace. From the building blocks of progressive, trance & house, he crafted early anthems like ‘The New World’ and latter-day ones like ‘Destiny’. Caught between have been many a revered album (most recently ‘We Are The Light’), a convoy of club hits and thousands of mesmeric performances, played out in front of untold millions. He’s helmed the scene-essential Coldharbour Recordings label for 14 years, chaired the Global DJ Broadcast radio show for 18 and remixed everyone from Moroder to Madonna.

His floor-bound adventures have met with equal acclaim. Markus has scaled the upper reaches of the world’s DJ rankings and charts; is a (unprecedented) three-time winner of DJ Times’ America’s Best DJ crown and has drawn acclaim from every electronic music portal & press outlet on the planet. Through his effortless audience affinity, flawless mixing, intuitive tune selection and now famous, stylistically open-world sets, he has wowed crowds in every major city on the planet. Each feeding off the other’s energy, Schulz’s DJ career has been symbiotically linked with his production side. In the early Noughties, having focused on the nexus between trance & progressive, he began to reach audiences farther and farther afield. Now a regular fixture at the world’s biggest & most famous clubs, arenas and festival stages, weekly he lays down his inimitable musical vision. In Europe, he’s floored audiences at events like Transmission, Electronic Family, Nature One, Creamfields & Dance Valley and hosted his own stage at Tomorrowland. Stateside, EDC, Ultra, Nocturnal and numerous others have similarly all felt Schulz pressure. His legendary open-till-close sets, at spots like Space, Miami, LA’s Avalon, Stereo, Montreal, Amnesia, Ibiza and his International Residency at Ministry Of Sound have become rites of passage for music lovers around the world.

With his singles releases, Markus concentrated on one-off collaborations throughout 2019. These led to first-time releases with ATB (‘Heartbeat’), BT ‘I Need Love’ and - with singer-songwriter HALIENE – an electronic music interpretation of ‘Ave Maria’, produced as a tribute to Markus’s mother who had passed in the spring.

Albums-wise, Markus conceived and delivered the ‘Watch The World’ album, which ran in the same stylistic vein as forerunner ‘We Are The Light’, with a heavy, all-but-exclusive emphasis on song-based tracks. Again the album afforded Markus the much-desired chance to resume the songwriting, which first came to the fore on ‘WTW’. The album’s first numbers were introduced by way of the ‘In Bloom’ EP. ‘Calling For Love’, which featured vocals from JES and the Emma Hewitt-sung ‘Safe From Harm’ both debuted as part of the EP. That was followed in the summer by ‘Upon My Shoulders’, which featured frontman from indietronica outfit Capital Cities, Sebu. The album also came to include a first time collaboration with Christina Novelli, as well as co-productions with Romanian stars Smiley and Alina Eremia.