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All Music Guide:
Belgium's Johan Gielen informs tense house beats with a trace of spiritual and ecological trance. Spinning records since he was a teenager and moving up through local discos and big-name clubs, Gielen's first taste of real success occurred in 1995 in Japan where owners of Tokyo's the Velfarre demanded a weekly residency. Although the distance proved worrying, Gielen agreed and continued to return to Belgium in-between stints to work on his own productions and remixes. The results of which -- Airscape's "Pacific Melody" and Alice Deejay's "The Lonely One" and remixes for Chicane, Vengaboys, Scooter, DJ Tiesto, and Boy George -- showed off a style of open-armed Ibizan benevolence well-suited for the rising late-night ebullient crowds in Holland and Wales. By 2000, Gielen was experiencing his biggest year to date. While working the festival circuit in Germany, South Africa, and Norway, he strengthened his ties to Sven Maes (Svenson & Gielen, Blue Bamboo, Body Heat), released mix albums (Academy of Trance and Trance Match), and formed his own production company, Johan Gielen Music Productions. Tiesto's Black Hole Recordings kept the heat on with the 2001 release of Gielen's In Trance We Trust 004, which sold more than 60,000 copies throughout the European territories.
Wikipedia:
Johan Gielen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈjoː.ɦɐn ˈʝi.lə(n)]) is a trance artist, DJ, and remixer. He was born on 23 February 1968 in the town of Mol, Belgium. Gielen is an easily recognizable name in the Netherlands.
Early years
Johan started DJ'ing at the age of 17 in his home country of Belgium, and during the latest 15 years has built up an international fame spinning as a DJ in Japan, Australia, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, England, Northern Ireland, Israel, North Cyprus and now also as resident DJ at Club Gorgeous in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Besides DJ'ing, Johan is a trance producer working with partner Sven Maes. Johan and Sven are behind European smash hits from Airscape, Balearic Bill, Des Mitchell, Abnea, Svenson & Gielen. Furthermore, they are well known for their remixing skills which can be heard on productions by Chicane, Delerium, Vengaboys, Tiësto, Scooter, Boy George a.o. They have proven that they are also capable of creating commercial dance hits, after finishing a single for Alice DeeJay.
After nearly two years of warming up the Saturday night party people by broadcasting his weekly radio show "Lift Off" on ID&T, he decided to leave the station in favor of Fresh FM where he hosts a weekly show called "In Session" every Saturday from 21:00 to 23:00 CET.
In 2005 Gielen was rated along with dozens of other internationally known DJs. At that time Paul Van Dyk claimed the number one position and Gielen was placed at number 57 (in the world).