|
Ultrabeat
Biography
Ultrabeat
"My parents were Christians, and my dad was a pastor in our church," Ultrabeat's Erik Augustsson says about his childhood. "I've been a Christian as far back as I can remember, but I definitely made a decision about it when I was 12."
Now, just ten years later, and still in his homeland of Sweden, Erik's taking the beauty and joy he found in his worship to the Lord in his childhood church and translating it into the voice of superb dance music, and becoming very successful at it.
For Ultrabeat's sophomore American CD, Beyond the Stars, which he wrote, performed, produced, and mixed entirely by himself, Erik believes that it outdoes its debut here, a trip to a planet called heaven, in that "it's produced better, it sounds tighter, and shows my growth as an artist." heaven was at the time awesomely mixed by popular Swedish producers Rico and Bear, but one listen to Beyond the Stars shows the amazing sonic improvements in composition and recording Erik has made since the first album. This is largely because Erik has kept up with all of the fascinating current trends in modern (and post-modern) European dance music, and has upgraded his equipment and recording devices to be competitive with any other music group in that market.
This means that Ultrabeat's hopeful Gospel message is delivered with some of the freshest-sounding techno music available. "Dance music is growing more and more every day," Erik says. "In Europe it's one of the biggest, perhaps the biggest musical style around. This album is a breakthrough for us, and many people think we're already the leaders in European-style Christian dance music."
The album comes in two parts, the first part of the disc being the more mainstream sounding songs (which are still very hip), and then the final six songs, which go for a "tougher instrumental club music trance flow," Erik says. "This is something many DJs are waiting for."
In concert, Ultrabeat combines their fresh dance sounds with superb modern dance from his wife, Sandra, whom he met when they were both fifteen years old. "We both loved dance music. Dance is an important part of our live performances, because I don't have a band like rock bands have. We use good lighting, and make the combination of dance and music an integral part of the shows."
One of the biggest shows Ultrabeat has done was earlier this year when they performed in one of Sweden's biggest arenas, "the Globen" ("the Globe"), in front of 10,000 people, along with Delirious, and many other top name Christian music acts. They shortly thereafter played another large show in Denmark, opening for Rebecca St. James. |
|
