LTN: Trance’s Rogue Element
Long-term fans of trance titan Armin van Buuren will know that beyond his typical mainstage performances, he also excels at playing warm-up sets full of lush, deep, melodic progressive, a talent he’s indulged at all of his ASOT 700 parties this year. One such occasion was in Sydney, Australia, at a party situated directly under the city’s iconic Harbour Bridge. Expertly traversing the deeper grooves toward trancier terrain, he finished it off with a perfectly realized example of the deeper trance sound: LTN’s remix of EDU & Kristoffer Ljungberg’s “Around the Sun.”
“Earlier, I’d produced more toward the mainstage style of trance,” says LTN, aka Louis Tan, speaking from his hometown of Jakarta in Indonesia. “But it was two years ago that I began to experiment on the deeper side of things.”
It all started with a particularly lush and seductive bootleg he produced of Estiva & Cardinal’s “Wait Forever.” It was memorable for sure, and a template for his future expeditions into progressive.
“I was then invited by Above & Beyond to do a guest mix for their Group Therapy radio show. I played the ‘Wait Forever’ bootleg in my mix, and a lot of people kinda loved it. So that’s why I started exploring that kind of style. People have called it ‘deep house trance.’” he laughs.
While this has come to represent an important aspect of the LTN identity, he says the more uplifting progressive trance still remains at the core of his sound (“around 65 percent of what I produce”), with his powerhouse remix of Gareth Emery’s “Eye of the Storm,” for instance, also proving to be a mainstay for Armin van Buuren this year while in peaktime mode.
However, with the amount of music LTN has been putting his name to, there’s plenty of room to move. Now one of the leading artists on the Enhanced Music collective, he’s been responsible for more than 30 singles and EPs over the past five years, as well as an incredible 100 or so different remixes. From his deeper excursions to his staple progressive trance and all the way up to euphoric and uplifting, LTN is trance’s rogue element.
While a lot of trance fans might not recognize his name yet, it’s a certainty that his productions will have made it into many more of your favorite DJ sets than you realize. And his versatility as a producer has been showcased perfectly on his new artist album, People I’ll Never Forget.
Tackling the Album Format
It was around the same time LTN dropped his “Wait Forever” bootleg that he also began working on what would eventually become People I’ll Never Forget. An accomplished effort that showcases the breadth of the LTN sound, he says the album was shaped gradually over time.
“Between the time when I began and finished the album, I’d had a lot of different projects that I was working on. And my initial plan was to release the material one-by-one as EPs, though eventually it began to shape in my head as an album. And I’d planned to make it like a set, so it would flow from slower styles into more uplifting and progressive trance style.”
And it makes this transition beautifully—from the housey guitar licks that dwell among the rich synth chords that rise from the opener, “Autumn Leaves,” to the mellow “Sunrise Mix” of one of his biggest vocal tracks to date, “Let Me Go.” The trance begins to bubble to the surface in the euphoria of “A Long Walk to Freedom,” the latest single to be lifted from the album, though it lowers gently again for gentle grooves and seductive whispers of “A Different Side of You.” The tone lifts with “Hold Onto Your Heart,” and from here on in, it continues to hit the big trance notes.
We got our hands on an early draft a few months ago, and it was already sounding good, though the final product sounds even more polished, those familiar club intros chiseled down for an album that flows very smoothly indeed. LTN confirms that the extended club versions of many of the album’s cuts will see release later this year, alongside an additional remix package.
The Nature of Being Prolific
One of the reasons you’ll find LTN productions creeping into the setlists of such a range of different trance DJs is partly the sheer volume of music he’s been releasing; though also, it’s his genuine versatility in being able to cater to the range of sounds across the trance spectrum.
“By listening to different styles of dance music, I started to get an idea of what my sound could be like if I combined them to achieve a more interesting outcome, rather than just doing the same style of trance over and over again.”
“I’ve had a lot of different releases in the past five to six years, and there’s a lot of new stuff coming out soon, too,” he says. “Producing music makes up around 90 percent of my job, so I often have a lot of projects going at any one time.”
His expertise in the studio isn’t something that came easily. He made his first big leap into trance when he relocated for a stint in Melbourne, Australia, early in his career, and this was followed by a similar dive into studio work. It wasn’t done with any kind of half-baked effort; he balanced a part-time job with as many as seven hours in the studio every day. Since his debut release in 2010, he points to experimentation as one of the ways he’s developed such a diverse sound, going back and forth on the different projects, and keeping a number of threads going at any one time.
“And a lot of it is just trial and error. Sometimes I don’t like it, but other people love it. And sometimes I might only work on a project for half of the day, and then tomorrow is a new project again. But sometimes one project can take four to five days. So I have a lot of different stuff going on,” he laughs. “Whenever I run out of ideas, I might open up an old project and have a look, and perhaps find something I can use in one of my new projects or my remixes.”
However, in spite of the varied focus of a lot of his releases, he says it’s not a matter of disparate styles and sounds; there’s actually a consistent thread that runs through it all.
“Yeah, I think they are all connected—because the main thing is, it has to be melodic. So I think from the melodies themselves, people know that it’s mine. And it also crosses over. I always put one or two elements of the deeper stuff into the mainroom tracks, and I put the mainroom stuff in the ‘deep house trance.’ So people can really notice the details that make it sound like LTN.”
And as much as trance has a reputation at times for formula and predictability, he says there is still plenty of potential for mixing the different styles and blurring the boundaries. It’s a chance both to expose trance fans to a different side of the sound, plus bring new listeners into the fold.
“I love to try and discover new sounds, and to make that my own trademark. By listening to different styles of dance music, I started to get an idea of what my sound could be like if I combined them to achieve a more interesting outcome, rather than just doing the same style of trance over and over again. For me, I think it’s a good way to expose people to different styles of music—to expand their boundaries a little. And currently, it’s vocal trance from the big-name producers that is getting the most attention. But with my style of trance, I’m hoping we can start attracting people again who enjoy other types of music.”
Enhancing Your Sound
One of the key elements in LTN’s career has been his relationship with the Enhanced stable. Signed for several years and releasing across several of their sublabels (Enhanced Music, Enhanced Progressive, Arrival, and so forth), he says the connection has been a big influence.
“I think from my point of view, producing is where you can really get your name out there. Producing first and then DJing, that was my mindset there.”
“It’s been a few years now already, and I’m really happy with them. I think with the first three or four tracks that I signed with them, you can really hear the difference in what I‘m producing now. I’m getting input from time to time, and they are always telling me straight to the point, ‘I don’t like this kind of sound, you have to improve this,’ etc. So I learned a lot from them, and I have to thank them, especially Will Holland. He talks straight to the point, man,” he laughs.
For the moment, he’s a favorite with the trance purists, although he’s not necessarily on the radar of the mainstream dance fans. However, this could change as his DJ career picks up, with a typical set seeing him starting with the “deep house trance” and moving toward the more uplifting styles, an approach that gives him the chance to give his entire catalog a workout.
“I think from my point of view, producing is where you can really get your name out there. Producing first and then DJing, that was my mindset there. But I’m starting to get bookings from all over the world now, so I guess we’ll see from now on. If there are no bookings, then I’ll stay in my studio. But if there are bookings, I’ll have to work on my laptop as I travel.”
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