Christian Rusch | en

Taking his first steps onto the scene back in 2000, Christian snuck into the back room of a underground nightclub that some friends of his had rented for the evening to host a jazz night. There in the back was an abandoned DJ booth. Having tried, and failed miserably, to mix together ATB’s “9 P.M.” and the Matt Darey remix of Blockster’s “Grooveline”, Christian was hooked. He returned to Sweden for a one-week vacation, purchased a mixer and a deck, some 30 records and returned to Beijing. That following Thursday he auditioned at the now legendary Club VOGUE (88) and started what would become his first residency that following Saturday.

Upon returning to Sweden, making his own music to spin out felt like the next natural step. In the fall of 2001 Christian started putting time into learning the basics of composition and producing - a little less than a year later Armin van Buuren spun his first tracks. The first was “Alias - Missouri”, which not only was featured on Trance.nu debut compilation “Surviving the Chills” by DJ Stigma and DJ Elusive, but also gained heavy support from DJ Tiësto. The second was a collaboration with UK producer Greg Murray - “Rusch & Murray - Epic”. Getting snapped up by UK premiere label Anjunabeats and treated to a remix by the label owners and trance scene superstars Above & Beyond themselves, this debut single - supported by Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Matt Hardwick, Solar Stone, Above & Beyond, ATB, Blank & Jones, George Acosta and many more - instantly launched Christian into the lime-light and made for one of the biggest records of the summer of 2003. This success saw Christian spinning for Monday Bar on the now classic party cruises alongside Ferry Corsten, Matt Hardwick, Sven Väth, Özgür Can and others, as well returning to Beijing to spin alongside Sven Väth - who due to the SARS-scare cancelled his show leaving Christian as the main attraction of the night.

Numerous remixes for artists such as Mike Shiver, Envio, Masters & Nickson and Scarab (Airbase) on labels such as Armada, Lost Language and Equilibrium followed, and upon specific request from Markus Schultz, Christian wrote the intro track to Markus’ debut 2CD compilation for Armada - “Coldharbour Sessions 2004″. 2004 also saw Christian put out the first track on Subtraxx Recordings new digital label - a release heavily supported by Danish DJ Niklas Harding. Following the success of Epic, Anjunabeats also released “Rusch & Murray - The Promise” which, backed with a Ronski Speed remix tore up dancefloors worldwide during the summer and fall. Having tied new connections in Finland Christian travelled to Finland and teamed up with Finnish top producer Miika Kuisma to produce the darkishly moody trancer “Kuisma & Rusch - Yogatech”, which was put out on Misja Helsloot’s label Gesture Music during early 2005. Christian returned to Finland later that year to do a mini-tour playing alongside Laurent Véronnez, Dallas Superstars, Cosmicman and Super8.

Taking time off in favour of the military, playing only the occasional gig on the domestic scene, much of 2004 and 2005 was spent away from the studio and most of the studio time was spent learning new software and refining a new sound. During this time Christian started the piecing together of his debut artist album. Returning to the scene in 2006, Christian remixed for Mike Shiver on his Captured Music and made his US djing debut, spinning with The Thrillseekers at Spundae in L.A. Back with a vengeance, 2007 is looking to be a strong year for Christian, so keep those eyes and ears open for the new releases. .