Anjunabeats / Anjunadeep

Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep are the twin British record labels operated by Above & Beyond. Anjunabeats was founded in 2000 by Jonathan "Jono" Grant and Paavo Siljamäki — initially as a vehicle for the trio's own music — and took its name from Anjuna beach in Goa, India, the spiritual home of the early-1990s Goa-trance scene. Tony McGuinness joined Grant and Siljamäki shortly after, when the three were assembled to remix Chakra's "Home," forming Above & Beyond. The label quickly grew into one of the world's most respected homes for vocal and progressive trance and has gone on to host artists including Andrew Bayer, Mat Zo, Genix, Ilan Bluestone, Jason Ross, Spencer Brown, and many more. Anjunadeep was launched as a sublabel in 2005 to make room for releases that did not sit comfortably under Anjunabeats' trance focus — slower, deeper, more atmospheric productions that overlap with progressive house and the contemporary melodic-techno space. The Anjunadeep roster has grown to include Lane 8, Ben Böhmer, Yotto, Tinlicker, Jody Wisternoff, James Grant, and others, and the sublabel is now widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary outlets for melodic, harmonically-rich electronic music. Where Anjunabeats remained largely focused on the trance lineage, Anjunadeep effectively spun off a parallel ecosystem with its own festival editions, its own podcast, and its own distinct production aesthetic. The two labels share a global event and broadcasting platform. Above & Beyond's Group Therapy Radio launched on 10 November 2012 with a six-hour live broadcast from Jayamahal Palace in Bangalore, India, as the successor to their long-running Trance Around the World show; the weekly two-hour podcast is now the primary radio home for new Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep releases, with milestone episodes (ABGT 100, 200, 300, 400, 500) staged as multi-day festival events. Anjuna events have headlined Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado and The Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, alongside dedicated Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep festival editions in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Together the two labels constitute one of dance music's most successful artist-run ecosystems — an integrated triangle of label catalogue, weekly broadcast, and live festival programming. Listeners often describe being part of "the Anjuna family" the way they describe being part of the wider Trance Family: the labels actively foster a community identity around their releases, and Above & Beyond's habit of addressing crowds as collaborators rather than spectators is a key reason both sublabels feel less like commercial outlets and more like ongoing musical conversations.