Anjunabeats celebrates 20 years since being founded

It’s been 20 years since Anjunabeats was founded by Above & Beyond back in 2000. Throughout the past 20 years, more than 700 records have been released through the label, wearing the iconic Anjuna ‘A’ and kickstarting the career of various producers like Andrew Bayer, ilan Bluestone, Seven Lions, and many more.

To celebrate the 20th birthday of the label, several one-day festivals were planned throughout the year, which unfortunately are not going ahead due to the global health crisis caused by COVID-19, more commonly referred to as the Coronavirus. However, this doesn’t stop everyones favourite trance trio from celebrating their label’s anniversary. Instead of the planned festivals, various artists signed to Anjunabeats are going through 20 years of Anjunabeats history, picking their favourite tunes which will be released every 2 weeks on a compilation, starting with Oliver Smith on May 28th, the first producer that was signed onto the label.

“Our twentieth year certainly turned out to be a memorable one, didn’t it? We never saw that coming. But one of the many positive things to come out of Lockdown is that​ it’s given us, our family of artists, and our team in London a chance to reflect upon the incredible records we’ve been custodians of for the last twenty years. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’ll be looking back at the songs that brought this community together through the eyes of the artists that made them and played them.” – Above & Beyond

The celebrations don’t stop there though, there’s more than just exclusive mixes by the best Anjuna artists. Above & Beyond have just released a collection of their ‘Club Mixes’ available to stream and purchase, which contains tracks reimagined by themselves starting with a 2006 classic ‘Alone Tonight’ featuring Richard Bedford, until their more recent tracks like ‘Bittersweet & Blue’ also featuring Richard Bedford, or ‘Cold Feet‘ with ​Justine Suissa​. Also in the works for a release in mid-summer, is Anjunabeats Volume 15, this year’s compilation of the most iconic tracks from the past year that were released on the label.

To round things up, at least for now, a line of collectors merchandise has been released, with prints of the iconic Above & Beyond album sleeves of ‘Tri-State’, ‘Group Therapy’, ‘We Are All We Need’, ‘Common Ground’, ‘Flow State’ as well as OceanLab’s ‘Sirens Of The Sea’ album which are available now through the Anjuna store.

From what we know, this is just the beginning of the celebrations of the 20th birthday of Anjunabeats, but what is still coming has yet to be revealed, but for sure we know, it’s going to be massive – how else would you celebrate 20 years of one of the most important dance music labels? While we’re waiting for more news on this, Tony & Jono are keeping us entertained with their weekly streams, the #AnjunaUnlocked series as well as Group Therapy Radio. Every Tuesday at 6pm BST, Jono is live mixing the best tracks selected by the Anjunafamily, and Tony is recreating classic Above & Beyond sets every Wednesday at the same time, while Group Therapy Radio is on to kickstart your weekend in Friday’s from 7pm BST, all on the Anjuna Twitch Channel.

All that is left to say now is – Happy Birthday Anjunabeats, it’s been a great 20 years, keep it up and on to the next 20 and many many more!

Image Credit: Rukes.com