Armin van Buuren announces ninth album Breathe In

Armin van Buuren, a five-time World’s No. 1 DJ, closed out the year the way he has for two decades: compiling the best of trance into an annual retrospective, the twentieth edition. He is also on the bill for Ultra Music Festival’s next edition. What comes next breaks the pattern further: Breathe In lands January 12, out via Armada Music — the ninth album of his career.

Breathe In is built around a simple idea — that music, at its best, pulls a room together — carried by a higher tempo and a more upbeat register than what preceded it, continuing on from Feel Again, the album trilogy he closed out in 2022.

Writing and recording stretched across the pandemic’s back half, roughly two years, arriving as the holiday lull that usually slows the calendar starts to lift toward the new year.

The mix that wrapped up his year was assembled a different way: tracks Armin selected himself from the year’s fan vote for trance’s best.