ATB

ATB is the project of André Tanneberger, the German producer behind “9 PM (Till I Come)”. The track came out in 1998, went to No. 1 in the UK the following year and turned a studio alias into one of trance’s longest-running names. More than 25 years later, ATB still releases singles, still tours and still shows up in the DJ Mag Top 100.

Sequential One: the first chapter

Tanneberger was born on 26 February 1973 in Freiberg, in what was then East Germany. His first project was Sequential One, or SQ-1, whose debut single “Let Me Hear You” appeared in February 1993. A year later it became a band, with Ulrich Pöppelbaum, Woody van Eyden and the singer Morpha. The debut album, Dance, came out on House Nation in early 1995, followed by Energy.

Van Eyden and Morpha left in 1998. Sequential One ended in 1999 with the single “Angels” and the compilation Decades. By then Tanneberger was already working under the three letters that would define his career.

“9 PM (Till I Come)” and the UK No. 1

“9 PM (Till I Come)” opened ATB’s debut album, Movin’ Melodies (1999), and became his calling card. Released in 1998, it reached the top of the UK Singles Chart in 1999. The follow-up, “Don’t Stop!”, reworked the same hook and became a hit in its own right. “Killer” gave him another UK single, while “I Don’t Wanna Stop” and a cover of Olive’s 1996 hit “You’re Not Alone” carried him across Germany and the rest of Europe.

Albums and voices

From there ATB worked album by album: Two Worlds (2000), Dedicated (2002), Addicted to Music (2003) and No Silence (2004), then Trilogy (2007), Future Memories (2009), Distant Earth (2011), Contact (2014) and neXt, released on Kontor Records on 21 April 2017. The compilation Seven Years marked 2005.

Singers shaped much of that catalogue. Heather Nova sang on Two Worlds and on “Renegade”. Roberta Carter Harrison of Wild Strawberries also recorded with him, and Tiff Lacey sang on “Ecstasy”, “Marrakech” and “Humanity”. On “Enigmatic Encounter” he used music by Enigma. In the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll, ATB peaked at No. 9 in 2005 and came 11th in both 2009 and 2010.

Back to 9 PM

In 2021 the old hook came back. “Your Love (9PM)”, made with Topic and Alexander “A7S” Tidebrink, was released on Positiva and reached No. 42 in the UK, 22 years after the original topped the same chart.

In May 2024 Tanneberger announced that his next album would be his last, pointing to streaming and a market now driven by singles. He plans to keep releasing singles and touring, and he was still voted into the DJ Mag Top 100 in 2025, at No. 59.

Where ATB fits in a set

ATB’s records sit on the melodic, vocal side of trance: one strong hook, long breakdowns, choruses made to be sung back. They work best at the moment a set lifts from driving to euphoric. For the same era of European trance, keep digging with Tiësto and “Meet Her at the Love Parade” by Da Hool.