Gouryella – Ligaya

Beautiful, emotional trance from 2002, a Ferry Corsten classic.

For those of you not in the know, 'Ligaya' is a trance rendition of Dutch artist Marco Borsato, in his track 'Voor Altijd'. Listen to that track on youtube and it is the classical version of Ligaya 100%.

The track ‘Ligaya’ was the 4th track that was released under the project name ‘Gouryella’. The first 3 tracks ('Gouryella', 'Walhalla' and 'Tenshi') were all written and produced by both Ferry Corsten and Tijs Verwest (Tiësto). Because Tiësto was really busy around that time, he and Ferry both agreed that Ferry would do the next Gouryella single on his own.

In the meantime Ferry got in contact with Dutch producer / songwriter John Ewbank. Ewbank had already worked together a lot with famous Dutch singer Marco Borsato (whose track ‘De Bestemming’ was recently remixed by Ferry) for some tracks and albums and he had written and produced for some other artists as well. John was really interested in doing something with classical melodies. Somebody from Ferry’s record company introduced John and Ferry to each other and after that, they went in the studio together. John Ewbank wrote the main melody and the lyrics of ‘Ligaya’. Ferry took care of the production of the track. This all took place in the beginning of 2002.

The vocals in ‘Ligaya’ were done by Dutch singer Patty Gaddum (who also did the vocals on the ‘Chew-Fu Phat’ track ‘Without You’). The word ‘Ligaya’ means 'Happiness' in Filipino (Ferry’s wife is actually from the Filipines). Ferry picked that title, because they were just married and Ferry wanted to make a sort of a dedication to her with the track.

One of the first times that 'Ligaya' was played in a club was on Friday the 28th 2002 of June at 'Peach' at the Camden Palace, London, UK. Around the summer, 20 white label promo copies from 'Ligaya' were send out to DJ's like Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Judge Jules and Paul van Dyk. Armin was the first DJ who played 'Ligaya' on the radio. This was in his radio show 'A State Of Trance' (on ID&T Radio during that time) on Thursday evening the 18th of July 2002.

'Ligaya' was officially released on vinyl in September 2002 on the ‘Tsunami’ label (TSU 6035). The video for the track was shot at the end of July 2002 and the amazing, hi-tech video was featured as a bonus on the ‘Ligaya’ CD releases. The Spanish vinyl release of Ligaya (on ‘Bit Progressive Music’) was a special picture disc vinyl with a picture of the ‘electronic beetle’, that was also featured in the ‘Ligaya’ video clip.

There are a few remixes done of ‘Ligaya’. People such as ‘Hiver & Hammer’, ‘Green Court’ and Ferry Corsten himself remixed the track. Later on there was another limited release with hardstyle remixes done by ‘Yoji Biomehanika’ and ‘Walt’. Piet Bervoets and Benno de Goeij (Rank 1) made a remix of 'Ligaya' as well, but this one was rejected by the record company, so it never saw a release… There are also some unofficial (fan) remixes of ‘Ligaya’. The most well known remixes of this one are probably the remixes done by ‘Airbase’ and ‘Icone’. But those ones weren’t released officially.

Arguably the greatest Trance track of 2002. Ferry Corsten leaves behind DJ Tiesto this time for a solo attempt at the 4th Gouryella release. Massive breakdowns, storming buildups, and exploding amounts of energy all rolled in one beautifully melodic track.