Bart Claessen
Bart Claessen was born in the Netherlands on January 22nd, 1980. He always loved music and had his first piano lessons at the age of seven. Impressed by electronic music at the end of the nineties, he worked hard during high school to buy his first studio equipment: a synth, a sampler, an Atari computer and a small mixer. With this equipment, he changed the attic of his parental house into a small studio and it didn’t take long before things took off for Bart!
After graduating from high school, he started studying Music Technology at the Utrecht School Of Arts and impressed the dance scene one year later, in 2001, with his first release ever: Barthezz – ‘On The Move’. Receiving massive dj support, it started as a club anthem in his home country and ended up to be a worldwide singles chart hit, with releases on labels like Positiva, Superstar, Avex and Ultra. Top-10 positions in singles charts of over ten countries were achieved, nominations for two Dutch TMF Awards (best national dance act, best video) and close to 150.000 copies were sold in Germany only. His second release, ‘Infected’, was almost as successful as the first and it was clear that his success was more than just a one-hit-wonder.
After a long break it was time to try something new and Bart decided to release his new tunes under his own name: Bart Claessen. The first release was called ‘Persona Non Grata’ was the and was soon followed by club smashers ‘Playmo’, ‘When Morning Comes’ and the highly sought-after ‘As Playmo Comes’ a great mashup. All tracks supported by almost every dj who plays trance, techno or anything that sounds like it, and featured on numerous cd compilations across the globe. As a result of his successful tracks, Bart became a much wanted remixer, working for the biggest names and labels around. His remix work includes artists such as Chocolate Puma, Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond, Public Domain and Remo-Con.
In 2007 Bart Claessen released ‘First Light’, a vocal techtrance tune that, after doing damage in the clubs, suddenly became a big singles chart hit in the Netherlands. Bart’s dj career also had an enormous boost in 2007, playing on the biggest events and clubs, like Coloursfest Glasgow, Cream Amnesia Ibiza, Sunrise Festival Poland, Peppermint Dubai, Ultraworld Melbourne and Godskitchen Kiev. 2008 started off with a bang when the highly respected Anjunabeats label chooses Bart’s remix of Razorfish - a big Above & Beyond classic - to be the tune to mark their 100th release. A re-release of Playmo with new vocals and mixes also was released.
Early 2009 Bart´s bootleg of the all-time trance-classic Riva – ‘Stringer’ was released on Yakuza and immediately caused a big stir. It is supported by artists like Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond, Markus Schulz, Gareth Emery, Sander van Doorn, Marco V and Judge Jules. With brand new remixes for Bardo State, Robert Burian and Paul Keeley coming up and his radio-show on the brand new Slinky.FM every first en third Wednesday of the month at 9.00 PM GMT, Bart Claessen is ready to turn 2009 into his year! To be continued!
www.bartclaessen.com
www.myspace.com/bartclaessen
