The artist shared the news on his socials recently, with what will become the eleventh LP of his career.
Bittersweet news come from the world of Trance today, as one of its living legends, ATB, has announced his next artist album, DON’T STOP, which will come out next year. At the same time, he opened up and concluded it will be the last album of his career.
The author behind the iconic ‘9PM (Till I Come)‘, turned to his socials to deliver the news. After 30 entire years of gracing the scene with tune after tune, DON’T STOP will be the last chapter of André’s long-lasting relationship with albums. Preceding it come, in inverse chronological order, neXt, Contact, Distant Earth, Future Memories, Trilogy, No Silence, Addicted To Music, Dedicated, and Two Worlds.
The Reason: It’s Fallen Out Of Fashion
ATB says, even though he loves how powerful of a tool an album can be to create sonic journeys as an artist seeking deeper connecting threads, he’s decided to put an end to the album story of his alias due to how listeners consume music nowadays. He blames “skip rates and algorithms“, which work against growing a lasting relationship between artist and auditor, and eventually lead to the album losing its sense.
“I’ve always loved working on albums, spending weeks deciding on the song order, and sometimes creating transitions between tracks to take you on a musical journey and let you escape into another world“, shares André, who then gloomily concludes, “In today’s era of streaming and downloads, unfortunately, such concepts don’t stand much of a chance anymore“.
“With skip rates and algorithms, music has become a fast-paced commodity, rarely having the time to grow on listeners and transform from a seemingly insignificant track into a favorite song after multiple listens.”
Quite fittingly, we shared an editorial not long ago openly debating the current state of the concept of the artist album in today’s era. You can read it by clicking this link.
Read the full statement below:
Is This The End Of ATB?
No. ATB says he will not craft any albums past DON’T STOP, but that is totally independent of the fact that he will continue to create music. The difference lies in the channel of expression: leaving LPs behind, André will focus on releasing shorter-form packages, such as singles and EPs. Thankfully that way, he’ll be able to keep his legacy alive while also feeling the amount of effort more proportional to the number outcome.
Even though we’re saddened by this decision, we appreciate ATB’s courage to speak out and publicly announce a difficult decision that could have been left unsaid and without a proper explanation. We wish him the best in his next works, which we’re sure will continue to grace the ears and souls of millions of listeners worldwide.
Speaking of his next works, check out his most recent track, ‘Future City‘, released on Dreamstate Records.
