Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery emerged in the mid-2000s as one of British trance's brightest hopes. Early productions on labels like Five AM and CDR caught the attention of Above & Beyond, who signed him to Anjunabeats; his 2010 debut album Northern Lights, released on his own Garuda imprint, became a critical and commercial hit and established him as a leading album-format trance artist. Through the 2010s Emery built one of the genre's most distinctive catalogues — Drive (2014), 100 Reasons to Live (2016), and the live-album/concept project Drive: Refueled (2015) all stretched the boundaries of what a trance album could be. The 2017 collaboration with Standerwick "Saving Light," released as a benefit for survivors of online bullying, became one of the most affecting trance singles of recent memory; "Concrete Angel" with Christina Novelli remains a defining vocal trance track of the 2010s. Garuda Music, his label, has hosted releases from Standerwick, Ben Gold, Asteroid, and Emery's own Electric for Life radio show, which ran for several years and combined trance with broader open-format dance influences. He has been a vocal advocate for the trance community on social media, never shying from frank assessments of the scene's commercial pressures. In 2020 he launched The Saga, a multi-track concept release distributed only via NFTs — an early experiment in alternative distribution models. He has also become a sought-after live performer, with sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl, the Greek Theatre, and Drumsheds in London. Whether constructing pristine vocal trance or thunderous peak-time material, Emery's work consistently demonstrates that intelligence and emotional impact need not be opposites.