The trance DJ Armin Van Buuren has a new album out today (31 October). Nothing unusual about that, you might say - he’s released eight before, usually with one word titles (Shivers, Intense, Embrace, etc). But Piano is different: it’s his first venture into the classical field.
It’s also coming out exclusively on Apple Music and Apple Music Classical for a week and, to tie in with that, the Dutch DJ has given an interview to Zane Lowe of Apple Music 1 about the new project.
He admitted to feeling nervous about the whole venture, saying: “Playing the piano, I feel more naked than on the cover of Men’s Health magazine... If people will dislike this or be critical of this, because it’s so personal, that will hit me harder than when I do release another dance track. But I feel I’m looking for that vulnerability right now in my life and this is exactly where I need to be.”
(For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dutch men’s periodicals… Van Buuren wasn’t speaking metaphorically. He actually was on the cover of Men’s Health Magazine in the Netherlands earlier this year.)
The classical album, he explained, came out of a period of intense self-doubt. “The cave you fear holds the treasure you seek... really looking that animal in the face was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Who am I? What kind of person do I want to be? And yeah, I’ve hurt a lot of people… but most of all, I was hurting myself.”
He says that Covid felt like a relief. “All of a sudden, I didn’t have to play anymore. And that’s when I seriously considered quitting music.”
Van Buuren started piano lessons in 2018, which led naturally onto composition. “I feel a freedom behind the piano that I don’t feel behind the sequencer,” he explained to Lowe. “What I learned mostly recording all these pieces is the power of breath. There’s music without any note being played. And that’s something I didn’t understand being a DJ. Now I understand how fundamental that is and how all the composers already knew that, the power of breathing.”
Van Buuren said he wasn’t sure if Piano (for which every track was, remarkably, recorded in one take) marks a new chapter for him, or whether it’s merely an interesting diversion.
“At this point, there’s no plan... Everybody’s asking me, ‘Are you going to do the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam?’ (The city’s main concert hall). I have no idea. The only thing I can tell you is that it’s genuine. It comes straight from the heart and it’s in one take... It’s the most honest music I’ve ever made.”
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