Gouryella

Gouryella is a Dutch trance act comprising Ferry Corsten and DJ Tiësto. The word itself means "heaven" in an aborigine language. They are best known for the self-titled song "Gouryella" and the follow-up single "Walhalla", which are now widely considered classics in the genre of epic trance.

Gouryella made a video of the single "Ligaya" available on the internet.^[1]

Biography

In 1999, successful Dutch artists Ferry Corsten and Tiësto joined forces to create the trance partnership of Gouryella. To highlight their importance in the trance scene at the time, there were 20 separate CD releases of the 4 Gouryella tracks from 9 different labels.

Gouryella is known to have released six tracks: Gouryella, Gorella, Walhalla, In Walhalla, Tenshi and Ligaya. Note that Gorella and In Walhalla were B-Sides and were never released in the UK, although they can be found on the respective German and Dutch import CDs. All four released tracks appear on Tranceaddict's Top 100 EDM Tracks list.

Late in 2000, Tiësto decided he needed to concentrate on his solo work and left Corsten to write and produce Ligaya with British producer John Ewbank in 2001.

The first single, Gouryella, was released to praise and contained remixes from DJ Gigilo and Armin van Buuren. Walhalla, also released in 1999, also featured a remix from Van Buuren, as well as Hybrid. On July 7, 1999 Ferry and Tijs both received a gold record for the release of the first ‘Gouryella’ track.

The release of Tenshi in 2000 saw a slightly different style in Gouryella's work and some fans^[who?] say that the apparent move away from euphoric synth lines and towards an edgier electronic sound represented Tiësto's increasing influence.^{[citation needed]} Tenshi CDM featured some remixes from Transa, ATB, Ratty (Scooter).

In 2002 Corsten produced Ligaya and set it for release with a remixpack from Hiver & Hammer and Green Court plus an extra Ferry Corsten remix which more or less replaced the original baseline with Ferry's trademark rolling baseline and gave the breakdown slightly more of an electric clubfeel rather than the orchestral uplifting breakdown in the original mix.^{[citation needed]} There was also some controversy around the first 3 minutes of the Ferry Corsten remix sounding very much like Sash!'s track Adelante from 1999.^{[citation needed]}

Dutch duo Rank 1 also did a remix which supposedly was to be included in the original release, but rumour has it the record label turned it down saying it sounded too much like the original.^{[citation needed]} However, Rank 1 did play it in some of their sets in 2002/2003, and setrips can be found floating around the net, but it has never been officially released to the public.

A stream of remixes by fans soon followed the original release, most notably by Airbase who actually let people download his own remix for free before the original was released to the public. The Airbase remix was also the first remix to truly differ in sound from the original while still keeping the catchy melody.^{[citation needed]}

Rumours of both Tiësto and Paul van Dyk remixes have also been wandering around for long but in the end they've always shown up to be badly renamed mp3s of the official remixes.^{[citation needed]}

2003 saw the release of Ligaya "the hard mixes". This time around remixes were provided by Yoji Biomehanika and Walt, now focusing more on the rhythm and percussion rather than the melody.

Gouryella remixed two tracks for other artists, both in 1999: Solange - Messages and Binary Finary - 1999.

Additionally, Corsten and Tiësto released two tracks under the name of Vimana. We Came was released as a single in 1999 and featured a B-Side called Dreamtime. At the time, neither of these tracks were deemed suitable for a release under the Gouryella name (whose style was for hardcore euphoric tracks), so a further alias was created.^{[citation needed]}

There are currently no plans for another Gouryella release. But there are current rumors on the return of Gouryella. Tijs & Ferry have been seen DJing together from time to time, but nothing is confirmed yet.

Discography

Tribute albums

This list contains tribute albums by Gouryella.^[2]

• 2004 Best
• 2005 Best of System F & Gouryella (Part One)
• 2006 Best of System F & Gouryella (Part Two)

Singles

This list contains singles by Gouryella.^[3]

• 1999 "Gouryella" #15 UK; #65 NL
• 1999 "Walhalla" #27 UK; #39 NL
• 2000 "Tenshi" #45 UK
• 2002 "Ligaya" (Ferry Corsten and John Ewbank, Tiësto did not participate) #78 GER; #67 NL

B-sides

This list contains B-Sides, produced by Gouryella.^[4]

• 1999 Gorella B-Side of "Gouryella"
• 1999 In Walhalla B-Side of "Walhalla"

Remixes

This list contains remixes by Gouryella.^[5]

• 2000 Binary Finary - 2000 (Gouryella Remix)
• 1999 Solange - Messages (Gouryella Remix)
• 1999 Binary Finary - 1998 (Gouryella Remix)
• 1999 Binary Finary - 1999 (Gouryella Remix)

Awards

• 1999 Gold Sales Award (Gouryella)
• 2000 Gold Sales Award (Walhalla)

References