The German Trance DJ's and Producers Claus Terhoeven (Nic Chagall) and Stefan Bossems (DJ Bossi), met in 1997 while they had several releases with different projects for X-IT Records in Cologne.

In November 1998 the duo met by chance in a studio, and decided to do a track together. The end result was a track called "The Drums" and the duo's first exploration in to Hard Trance; Cosmic Gate was born.

At this point the duo was forced to quit their resident DJ jobs in two of the biggest German clubs, to have enough time for remixes for artists like DJ Tiësto, Ferry Corsten, Rank 1, Blank & Jones, numerous DJ gigs and several new productions.

The follow up-singles "Mental Atmosphere", "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and "Fire Wire" were even more successfull than "The Drums", as they reached top selling positions in Germany and in the U.K. In Germany their first album, "Rhythm & Drums" (2001), was a big success as it went in Top 30.

In early summer 2002 their new single "The Truth" taken from the album "No More Sleep" became club and chart hits in Europe, as the single went straight to number 1 on the German Dance charts in the first week of release (only two other titles ever did that), and entered the charts at position 31.

In 2006 they released their third studio album, "Earth Mover" which was very different from previous Cosmic Gate albums as it no longer had the distinctive Hard Trance sound which made Cosmic Gate so popular. Their sound evolved even further on the fourth album, "Sign Of The Times" (2009) which takes a more 'progressive' approach to Trance music, which also reflects the duo's DJ sets.