Ferry Corsten unveils ‘UNITY’ project, releases collab with Paul Oakenfold

After successfully reviving his Gouryella alter-ego and dropping his high-quality album ‘Blueprint’ in 2017, Ferry Corsten is up for another interesting project this year. Tired of the criticism that trance as a genre has had to endure in the last decade, the 44-year old Dutch producer is now introducing ‘UNITY’, a concept that is aimed at bringing people closer together through the power of music. In light of the project, Ferry Corsten will undertake a series of collaborative projects with both established names as well as some up and coming artists in the trance scene – and beyond.

The first name that the trance legend teams up with for a collab is none other than Paul Oakenfold, one of the pioneers of electronic and trance music himself. Oakenfold is not known for doing a lot of collaborations, but in an exclusive interview with Billboard, the “Southern Sun” producer explains his excitement about Ferry Corsten approaching him for UNITY:

“I tend to not do many collaborations, but I’ve always got a Ferry Corsten track in my set in some shape or form. When [Corsten] reached out, I thought, “It actually makes a lot of sense.” I think we were always really leading to this point, without us even knowing about it.”

The Corsten & Oakenfold collab is titled “A Slice Of Heaven” and it seems just the perfect start for the UNITY project, as the track combines the strengths of both producers to the max. The result is an emotional proglifting anthem any trance fan will appreciate and the combination of the two producers’ different styles exactly fit the goals of UNITY. Even though both Ferry Corsten and Paul Oakenfold have been around in the scene for decades, “A Slice Of Heaven” marks their first-ever collab.

Another big plus of the project is that Ferry Corsten reached out to VH1 and their ‘Save The Music foundation’. Founded in 1997, Save The Music aimed to restore music programs across public schools and school districts in the USA. Profits from streams and UNITY shows will help fund tech grants for the charitable program, sharing the magic of electronic music production with generations of music lovers and creative minds to come. It facilitates underprivileged young people who aren’t fortunate enough to have access to today’s technology needed for DJ’ing and producing music.

Ferry Corsten sheds some light on the goals of UNITY:

“Music has always been a release for me and dance music, especially trance, has always had a sense of community attached to it. Through UNITY, my aim is to bring together all these people I have worked alongside through the years to create a project that reinforces that sense of being united and give young people the chance to make their own way in music.”

For the successor to “A Slice Of Heaven”, the second collaboration for the UNITY concept, Ferry Corsten teamed up with Arty and his Alpha 9 moniker. The Russian producer even appeared alongside his good friend during the first ‘A Night of UNITY’ live show at the Exchange nightclub in Los Angeles last month. As said, the new collab between the pair is almost finished and expectations will be high, as Arty and Alpha 9 are on fire lately, releasing a series of brilliant tracks and remixes, such as Arty’s latest single “Sunrise” ft. April Bender or the Alpha 9 remix of Above & Beyond‘s “My Own Hymn”.

At this point, check out “A Slice Of Heaven” and stay tuned for more UNITY news, as Ferry Corsten will take the concept on the road for more live shows this year, performing alongside his collaborators to further showcase that different styles can go together  in one show without a doubt.