Johan Gielen & Arkayne release new track ‘Save Face’: Listen

Johan Gielen teams up with Arkayne to release a refreshing new track entitled ‘Save Face’, out now.

Johan Gielen returns on Black Hole Recordings for the first time in 2024 alongside Arkayne. After meeting for the first time at a writer’s camp back in 2023, the two hit it off and immediately started working on music together. The pair describes the incredible process as playing “creative tennis”. “We were hitting ideas back and forth as if we were playing “creative tennis” for years“, says Johan, adding that “there was an immediate chemistry in the sessions and we were both keen to see where that could lead us”. 

After a year of “sonic silence”, Arkayne, whose real name is Kevin van der Tholen, is ready to re-enter the ring. When asked about his short hiatus he replied, “Music is art and evolving that takes time. I don’t want to become a broken record and I think meeting Johan was truly the right place, right time moment. ‘Save Face’ is really something else for the both of us.”

2023 ended with the powerful ‘Love From Above’ bringing us to the winter-fresh ‘Save Face’ for both Johan Gielen and Arkayne. The combination of both musical backgrounds is abundantly clear in this trance meets breaks powerhouse. From the top, the granular influences and vocals by Arkayne accompanied by Johan’s ethereal trance production in the Äirscape rmx” make you float on melancholy, never wishing to come down.