Richard Durand

Richard Durand, born Richard van Schooneveld on 5 April 1976 in Amsterdam, is one of the longest-running producer/DJs in the modern trance ecosystem. His career began in 2005 with the tech-trance single "Make Me Scream" on the Terminal 4 label, after which Tiësto named him "Tip for the Top" in DJ Magazine in 2007 — the boost that opened the doors to Tiësto's Magik Muzik / Black Hole Recordings imprint where the bulk of his catalogue would emerge. His most consequential editorial work was taking over the In Search of Sunrise compilation series from Tiësto in 2010 — Durand mixed and curated Volume 8 (South Africa, 2010), Volume 9 (India, 2011), Volume 10 (Australia, 2012), Volume 11 (Las Vegas, 2013), Volume 12 (Dubai, 2014), and the 2015 Volume 13.5 (Amsterdam), carrying the long-running Black Hole series across the period when Tiësto was transitioning out of trance. Alongside the compilation series, his studio albums on Magik Muzik / Black Hole established him as one of the late-2000s and 2010s Armada-affiliated uplifting roster's most prolific names — Always the Sun (2009), Wide Awake (2011), Richard Durand Versus the World (2012), The Air We Breathe (2018), and Reactivate (2022). His 2026 collaboration with Armin van Buuren and Dicosis, "Always You," is the official A State of Trance 2026 ELEVATION anthem, released on 26-27 February 2026 to coincide with the 25th-anniversary ASOT festival editions at Ahoy Rotterdam — and is the first time van Buuren and Durand have officially teamed up on a project after two decades of parallel Armada / Black Hole catalogues. The track debuted live during Armin's ASOT stage set at Ultra Music Festival and quickly became a recurring closer through the spring 2026 ASOT 25 tour.