Personally, I can’t claim to be the know-it-all of the trance genre, having only recently immersed myself wholeheartedly into it. Andrew Bayer was a name which I saw popping around here and there, but had never really gained any traction in my mind. His previous album announcement piqued my curiosity, but the album itself, in all honesty, did not interest me too much. New to Bayer’s style and assuming the stereotypical Anjuna release, I had expected fat basslines and soaring melodies – but definitely not minimalist, acoustic songs.

With time, however, as I’ve had a chance to explore his discography, I’ve slowly realized what I had been missing out on. Having worked behind the scenes with A&B themselves, helping out with hits like Northern Soul (Grammy nominee), the stakes were high, but with a few more patient listens of his album In My Last Life, each song seems to be growing on me over time.

After the much-awaited (among the Anjuna Family at least) release of the album (which notably featured two vocalists over seven vocal tracks), Bayer reassured fans wondering how the album would be toured, by announcing club mixes for multiple tracks off the album. Referring to them as “In My Next Life” mixes, in a clear reference to the album title and message, Bayer has managed to add energy, bass and bliss to his more introspective original mixes.

My twin loves for trance and more downtempo, reflective music – whether it be folk, indie or electronica – has been no secret, but bringing them together has been a challenge that has defined my journey as an artist. – Andrew Bayer

He started off with a mix for the lead single, Immortal Lover, which was released in September 2018, and featured a mainstage-worthy, magnificent melody which in fact was played by A&B at the mainstage in Tomorrowland.

With a bunch of teasers of the mixes to come in his set at ABGT300, Bayer continued this project with the club mix for Open End Resource. Amplifying the hauntingly beautiful songwriting with insanely technical production, Bayer conjured up a 7+ minute mix exuding glory and absolutely wild bass-lines. In-your-face synths and a stunning mixing+mastering job has made this possibly my favorite mix of them all.

Moving on, Andrew invited bass-phenom Genix for his next update, this time of Love You More. Genix’s gritty, comparatively discordant sound is heard clearly in the basslines, although the mix retains the reverb-filled, massive sound of the In My Next Life mixes.

Finally, his first release in 2019 is the In My Next Life mix of the title track, In My Last Life, and this one is the track that it took me 400+ words to come to. Released only a few days ago, it ups the tempo, but retains the emotion with a slightly more progressive, melodic take than the other club mixes so far (lacking a prominent bassline compared to the other mixes). With similar leads to Ruben de Ronde & Estiva’s Rainbow, this track relies on its stunning chord progression to do all the teary work.

Focusing on the magical vocals throughout the track, which are backed by soothing pads and later a melodic lead, Bayer makes a resounding impact on first time listeners with the pleasing harmonies between the vocals and the chord progression. Andrew Bayer has chosen long buildups for many of his previous club mixes too, and he continues to do so here. Some risers and oscillating white noise reminds you of something you would see in a bigroom/hardstyle track, and really gets the energy flowing before the drop. A simple yet catchy motif carries the entirety of the drop, as new sonic elements are introduced every few bars in the true progressive style.

If you find yourself addicted to the melodies and the chord progressions in this tune, all tied woven into a delicate piece of art through Alison May’s voice, you’ll be excited to hear that there’s more in the pipeline from Andrew Bayer. Notably, there’s the Your Eyes club mix to look forward to, played by Bayer at the huge ABGT300 event last year. There, he also debuted a couple of originals – Eight To Sixteen and Only You Boy.

Most recently, Above & Beyond played out yet another ID rumored to be one of his productions at their ASOT 900 set. Check it out at the 36:00 mark here.