Armin Van Buuren

Advocate, archivist, kingpin: Armin van Buuren isn’t just one of trance music’s most respected figures, he’s practically the embodiment of its spirit.

Born in Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1976, van Buuren came into the scene in the mid ’90s, as harder, ravier strains of Northern European dance music were crystalizing into euphoric new forms.

A law student who moonlighted as a DJ, van Buuren never set out to be a superstar.