Ultra Music presents Atmosphere - The Album

The album comes 10 years after the DJ’s recording career debut It’s You’ It’s Me and follows last year’s Fire & Ice, which earned him his first GRAMMY nomination. This album has already earned him another career milestone as the single “Atmosphere” gave him his 12th top 10 single spot on Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart earlier this summer, which puts him in good company with only three other artists who have achieved this: Rihanna, David Guetta and Britney Spears.

Brave, true, and arrestingly beautiful, Atmosphere is Kaskade’s most vivid self-portrait to date; a manifestation of the places, people, sounds, and ideas that have shaped him to this point, and indicate a future inevitably filled with more special moments, from the intimate to the epic:

“Production styles come and go, but good songs can stand the test of time,” Kaskade has said.  “This album is very personal to me, just as every album of mine has been, but this is something special as it’s really about my home and where I am. Even when I’m not home, you get a sense of my moods in this album in some special tracks that resonate my travels.”

After conquering Las Vegas, arenas, a demanding 55-date solo tour (2012’s Freaks of Nature), and even going back to the nightclub culture that birthed him on the very special Redux Tour (on which he revisited the 200-capacity rooms he had played as a developing DJ), Kaskade is back with his eighth and most personal album yet. Resisting the trend of enlisting pop stars for one-off in-studio features - straining for potential radio hits - the DJ and producer instead turned to friends, previous artistic partners and like-minded creators in his inner-circle to help bring the record to life. And, yet, while the album very much tracks his career, he continues to make career firsts.

For instance, the DJ and producer adds singing to his repertoire, as he sings for the first time on the title cut, a musical autobiography that tracks his career to this point: “All my life I’ve been a star / Holding a light up in the dark / While I tried to keep clear / Of all the waves in your atmosphere.”

The 13-track collection has its grand festival moments like emotive opener “Last Chance,”  or anthemic party celebration “Feelin The Night” but it also has unexpected, vulnerable passages that showcase Kaskade as an artist in an entirely new way.  The minimalist “Floating,” featuring one of Kaskade’s favorite vocalists Haley, uses only voice and pads to paint its picture.  The longing love song “Something Something” (with two-piece band Zip Zip Through The Night) swells its heart to full with strings, ambling drums and vocals in perfect harmony. A series of instrumentals capture the solitude of airline travel, as well as the vibe of the places Kaskade was traveling between: “SFO to ORD,” for example, is an uncanny intersection of San Francisco and Chicago’s house music heritages, both of which are important to Kaskade’s evolution (he was once a resident of both cities).

In addition to his vocal favourites like Becky Jean Williams and Haley, this already-critically-acclaimed album also looks to others for some new sounds including indie darlings School of Seven Bells.  Other collaborations on this album include Project 45, Late Night Alumni, Swanky Tunes, Lights and Debra Fotheringham.

Ryan Raddon, known as Kaskade, is a GRAMMY-nominated DJ, producer and songwriter who has been in the trenches of the electronic dance music scene as an original recording artist and in-demand DJ for more than a decade. He marked an industry milestone by selling out Los Angeles’ STAPLES Center after already earning the distinction of the first Electronic Dance Artist to ever solo-headline the venue during the biggest North American tour of his career last year, the Freaks of Nature Tour.  He has released seven studio albums, including his latest GRAMMY-nominated “Fire & Ice,” scored nine Top 10 hits on Billboard’s Hot Dance Airplay Chart, created chart-topping remixes for everyone from Lady Gaga to Beyonce, appeared at all the major summer music festivals, and has performed between 150 and 200 headlining shows a year for the last 10 years, building a name for himself as an innovator of the EDM scene as we know it today. His 2011 release “Fire & Ice,” released by Ultra Music, debuted at # 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart, #3 on the Independent Albums Chart and #17 on the Top 200 Albums chart, while the iTunes version debuted at #4 on the overall album chart.

Kaskade - Atmosphere
Release date 10th September 2013
Label Ultra Records

Tracklist
1. Last Chance - Kaskade & Project 46
2. Why Ask Why - Kaskade & Late Night Alumni
3. MIA to LAS - Kaskade
4. No One Knows Who We Are (Kaskade’s Atmosphere Mix) - Kaskade & Swanky Tunes (Feat. Lights)
5. Feeling The Night - Kaskade (Feat. Becky Jean Williams)
6. Take Your Mind Off  - Kaskade
7. LAX to JFK - Kaskade
8. Atmosphere - Kaskade
9. Missing You - Kaskade & School Of Seven Bells
10. Something Something - Kaskade & Zip Zip Through The Night
11. SFO to ORD - Kaskade
12. Floating - Kaskade (Feat. Haley)  
13. How It Is - Kaskade (Feat. Debra Fotheringham)