Johan Gielen returns to Airscape alias for stunning new album: Listen
After three decades devoted to trance and its powerful energy, Johan Gielen has returned to one of his aliases for a beautiful new album. Dedicated to the loss and memory of his long-time friend and tour manager, Robert Sanders, Gielen has delivered a delicate and driving release.
It is hard to believe that it’s been nearly two decades since Johan Gielen last delivered a full-length album. It was back in 2006 that he dropped Revelations under his own name. After returning to his alias Airscape for an A Search for Sunrise mix in 2024, he has now released the beautiful new full-length album Etherflow under the moniker. Opening with a lush arrangement of plucks and synths, the title track kicks things off before Sarah Anglionin raises the bar on Invincible with her euphoric vocal delivery. The raw emotion truly begins to hit next, as Beach Pearl [Robert’s Theme], a striking dedication to his late friend that ebbs and flows, much like the energy of waves.
“Losing Robert broke me for a long while. For a decade we toured the world and saw it together, and his passing came out of nowhere. With hindsight, I see I went into the studio to try to process some of that pain. To try to ‘write it off my chest’ in some fashion. From there, the album became a broader meditation of life’s ups and downs—the highs, the lows, but as well, the ‘in-betweens’ we’re often not grateful enough for. It’s about growing upin dance music and oddly the twenty yearsof perspective between‘Revelations’ and ’Etherflow’ was an incredible benefit to writing it.Ultimately though, this one’s forRobert—it’s how I expressed my grief, without words.”
-Johan Gielen
Next up, Love From Above, again leans into the incredible command of the trance genre that Gielen has shown through the decades, with an uplifting energy, reminding fans that music is about life and energy, a theme that follows through on the next track, Piano Del Sol. The midway point of the album sees Airscape join forces with Daniel Wanrooy, Gid Sedgwick, Arkayne, and Shakespeakers, adding the family atmosphere that makes dance music such a wonderful collective. Across Ecstatica, Healing, Never Look Back, In The Dust Where Love Is Gone, and Nordic Chant, listeners are treated to powerful vocals, lush atmospheres, and massive drops, all perfectly structured to drive emotions and intention to their peak.
“Etherflow represents the natural, continuous movement of universal energy—an invisible current that connects every being, thought, and element of existence in a harmonious manner.”
-Johan Gielen
The final third of the album opens up with another appearance from Shakespeakers on the radio-ready track Satellites. The vocals are powerful and sit perfectly upon the musical foundation, adding intrigue without distraction. Riding into the next track, Marula Sunset, Gielen teams up with Pierre Pienaar for an instrumental powerhouse, letting the plucks, lead, and synths convey all that is to be said. Etherflow closes out with Circles and All Of Me For All Of You, one last instrumental before a powerful vocal track to close out the collection.
“Always ,I have believed that artist albums need a purpose and that purpose can’t simply be feeding the industry machine or the bi-annual expectations of a fanbase”
-Johan Gielen
On the closer Circles, singer Katie Sky shines through, sharing the importance of love, compassion, and giving yourself to another. With two decades and the loss of a dear friend since his last album, Johan Gielen aka Airscape, has given all of himself to these fourteen tracks. Etherflow is a powerful representation of an artist who doesn’t need the mechanisms or pressures of the industry to dictate his output and the music here speaks to that. Whether as a touching tribute or a powerful force for touring, the music delivered on Etherflow will ignite and inspire all who encounter it.
