A Three-Year Musical Mystery Has the Trance Subreddit Playing Detective
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A Three-Year Musical Mystery Has the Trance Subreddit Playing Detective

A Reddit user's three-year hunt for a mystery trance artist — bald, numbered volumes, green cover, and a 'fourth dimension' voiceover — has the community rallying.

Adrian Wolfe

May 28, 2026

There are few feelings in the trance world more bittersweet than remembering a record that shaped you — and having absolutely no idea who made it. That's exactly the situation one Reddit user found themselves in this week, posting a heartfelt plea to the r/trance community in hopes that the collective memory of the trance family could do what three years of solo searching could not.

The Mystery: Numbered Volumes, a Green Cover, and the Fourth Dimension

User snes98 described an artist whose work they'd stumbled upon on Spotify roughly three years ago, with the album itself believed to date from around 2014. The clues they offered read almost like a trance-world treasure map: a bald white artist, a discography structured as numbered volumes (Volume 1, 2, 3, 4 and beyond), an album with a distinctly green cover art, and — perhaps most fascinatingly — a track featuring a spoken-word voiceover that built layer upon layer, guiding the listener toward what was described as the fourth dimension.

If that doesn't make your spine tingle, you might need to check your pulse. The imagery is pure trance DNA: the cosmic journey, the ascending structure, the sense that music is a vehicle for transcendence. Whoever this artist is, they were speaking the language fluently.

Why the Trance Community Is the Best Place to Ask

It's no accident that snes98 brought this question to r/trance. This is a community that catalogs obscure Platipus releases from 1997, debates the exact BPM of classic Ferry Corsten anthems, and can identify a 20-year-old ASOT ID from a three-second clip. The trance family doesn't forget. From Luminosity Beach Festival lineups to forgotten Paul van Dyk B-sides, this is a fandom built on obsessive, loving attention to detail.

The post, which earned a solid score of 9 with a 91% upvote ratio and generated 15 comments, shows that the community immediately leaned in. These are the moments that remind you why the trance world is special — not just the euphoric drops or the 138 BPM pulse, but the genuine human connection between people who care deeply about this music.

Possible Suspects: Who Could It Be?

While the comments are still working through the mystery, the description opens up some compelling possibilities worth exploring:

  • Astral Projection — Israeli psytrance legends with a deep catalog, cosmic themes, and a sound built around dimensional travel. Their numbered compilations and spoken-word interludes fit several of the clues.
  • John '00' Fleming — Known for the long-running J00F Editions series (numbered volumes, check), with a sound that ventures into deep, hypnotic underground trance territory.
  • Solarstone — His Pure series is exactly the kind of numbered, evolving discography that could match, and the sonic landscapes are often deeply introspective.
  • Robert Nickson or Protoculture — Both have released album series with progressive and uplifting trance elements and a cinematic, layered approach to composition.

The green cover and the "fourth dimension" voiceover remain the most distinctive identifiers. If any of these names spark something in you, the thread is waiting.

Lost Music, Found Community

What makes this post resonate beyond the mystery itself is what it represents. Music is memory. A trance album heard at the right moment — late at night, headphones on, mid-20s — can anchor itself to a feeling that's almost impossible to describe to someone who wasn't there. The search for that record isn't just about the music; it's about recovering a version of yourself.

The trance family has always understood this. It's why ASOT's ID sections create such frenzy, why Beatport mystery tracks generate hundreds of comments, and why a simple Reddit post about a half-remembered album from 2014 can pull in a dozen passionate responders within hours.

If you think you know who this artist is — the bald guy, the green album, the fourth dimension — head to the thread. The trance family is on the case.

FAQ

What are the clues to identify the mystery trance artist?

The artist is described as a bald white man with a discography structured as numbered volumes. One album, believed to be from around 2014, had a green cover and featured a track with a spoken-word voiceover building toward 'the fourth dimension.' The artist was available on Spotify.

Which trance artists release music in numbered volume series?

Several trance artists use numbered volume formats, including John '00' Fleming with his J00F Editions series, Solarstone with the Pure series, and various label compilation artists. Ferry Corsten's Tsunami series and Markus Schulz's Global DJ Broadcast compilations also follow similar structures.

How can I identify a trance track or artist I can't remember?

The best resources are the r/trance subreddit, the ASOT (A State of Trance) community forums, and apps like Shazam or Soundhound for audio identification. Describing the mood, era, and any lyrics or spoken-word elements in trance community spaces often yields fast results from dedicated fans.

Why is the trance community particularly good at identifying obscure music?

Trance fans are known for their deep cataloging of the genre's history, spanning decades of radio shows like ASOT, festival recordings, and label discographies. The community maintains active archives and has members who specialize in specific eras, labels, and subgenres, making collective identification remarkably effective.

What is the significance of 'the fourth dimension' in trance music?

Cosmic and dimensional themes run deep in trance music culture, connecting to the genre's roots in uplifting, transcendent soundscapes. Spoken-word interludes referencing spiritual or metaphysical concepts like higher dimensions are a hallmark of certain progressive and psychedelic trance subgenres, particularly from the late 1990s through the 2010s.

#trance community#reddit#lost music#trance family#mystery artist#underground trance#ASOT