Marinus Bernardus "Benno" de Goeij (; born on 19 March 1975) is a Dutch trance music producer. He is best known for his participation in Rank 1 with Piet Bervoets, Kamaya Painters with Tiësto and Gaia with Armin van Buuren whilst also serving as the co-producer for the hits that gave Jochen Miller his early fame between 2008 - 2012. From 2008 to 2023, de Goeij worked together with Armin van Buuren as his co-producer.
History Early years (1997–1998) Benno de Goeij began working as a producer in 1997 alongside Piet Bervoets whom he met at a party. They decided to create music of their own and created the duo Pedro & Benno with singles "Scream for Love", "Talkin' to You", and "Speechless" released under Karma Records. They also created tracks under various aliases like Precious People, Gualagara, A.I.D.A., Simplistic Mind, Two Disciples, R.O.O.S.
Rank 1: the early years (1999 – 2003)
In 1999, Rank 1 was born as they thought it would be a perfect joke to see a group named Rank 1 at a number 1 position. This joke became real when "Airwave" hit numerous charts at that position. They also remixed Cygnus X's "Superstring" song and released an anthem for Sensation in 2001 known as "Such Is Life" from the album Symsonic. In 2003, they re-released "Breathing" which was another charting track since it was a more break beat version of "Airwave".Rank 1 In 1998, Tiësto and de Goeij created Kamaya Painters, with three successful singles.
Rank 1: The later years (2004 – 2013) Following their successes with the Dutch Anthem Trance sound, Benno and Piet decided to take Rank 1 in a new new direction sound-wise. This resulted in various hits with varying style-influences such as the Tech Trance anthem "Beats At Rank-1 Dotcom" (2004) which was picked as the Anthem for Trance Energy 2005; the highly industrial/mechanical Techno-Trance hybrid "Top Gear" (2005) which was initially not supposed to be released following its debut during their Rank 1 live performance at Trance Energy 2005; the Electro-House inspired "Life Less Ordinary" (2006) collaboration with Alex M.O.R.P.H.; The modern Bigroom Trance Anthems "L.E.D. There Be Light" (2008), "Symfo" (2009), and "The Great Escape" vs. Jochen Miller (2010) which were chosen as the Trance Energy Anthem 2009, Sunrise Festival Theme 2009 and EnTrance Theme 2010 respectively. After years of exotic experimentation, Benno and Piet decided to re-invent their melodic/hypnotic Trance roots by releasing deeper Trance journeys in the guise of "7 Instead Of 8" (2012), "Elements Of Nature" vs. M.I.K.E. Push (2013) and "13.11.11" (2013) between October 2012 and November 2013.
Next to continuously evolving the Rank 1 sound over and over, Benno spent quite a few years in this era touring alongside Piet for their infamous Rank 1 live performances, touching down at Trance Energy 2005, Armin Only 2006, Essence Festival 2008, Trance Energy 2009, Sunrise Festival 2009, EDC Las Vegas 2012, Nature One 2012, Sunrise Festival 2012 and Back In The House 2013 among many more. The Rank 1 project continued to be active post-2013 albeit on a far lower frequency than before. Benno still managed to join Piet on stage for two very special Rank 1 live performances at Dreamstate SoCal 2017 and ASOT 950 in 2020.
Rank 1 Side-projects: co-producing for High Contrast label mates (2004–2013) In 2005 Benno co-produced the two-sided JOOP EP called "The World / Another World". Then, from 2006 to 2008 he co-created four of Ronald van Gelderen's singles: "This Way" (2006), "Realize" (2006), "Dirty Rocker" (2007) and "Embrace Me" (2008). This Way and Embrace Me even received Rank 1 Remixes. In 2010 Benno co-produced Artento Divini's single "Griffin" which was chosen as the Pleasure Island 2010 Theme.
Following the release of the Rank 1 vs. Jochen Miller dancefloor hit "And Then..." in 2008, Benno began working as Jochen's co-producer on the majority of the latter's big singles and remixes from 2008 through to early 2012. These included: "Lost Connection" (2008), "9 Minutes / Eclipse" (2008), "Face Value" (2009), "Brace Yourself" (2009), "Red One" (2009), "The Great Escape" (2010), "Dark Heart Waiting (Jochen Miller Remix)" (2010), "Humanoid" (2010), "Feels So Good (Jochen Miller Remix)" (2010), "Classified (Energy 2011 Theme)" (2010), "uPad" (2010), "Cosmic Gate - Back To Earth (Jochen Miller Remix)" (2010), "U And Eye" (2011), "Troucid" (2011), "One Day" (2011), "Bamm!" (2011), "Flashback" (2011), "Wild And Perfect Day" feat. Sarah Bettens (2012) and "Leap Of Faith (Emporium Festival Theme 2012)" (2012). Following Emporium, the two of them went their separate ways and a couple of years later, Jochen Miller swapped High Contrast Recordings for Armada Music.
Becoming Armin van Buuren's studio partner (2008 - 2023) In 2006, Benno teamed up with Armin van Buuren for the very first time. For this initial collab, help was enlisted by Sacha Collisson, Zoe Durrant and Pete Kirtley aka Kush for "This World Is Wathching Me".This World Is Watching Me In the A State Of Trance FOREVER Podcast episode, Benno and Armin explain that this collaboration was the hardest they did because they still had to get used to each other. Furthermore, according to Armin, Benno disliked the original chorus they had written so they used the bridge/verses instead.
But once it was finished, This World Is Watching Me became a hit and Benno and Armin worked together on Armin van Buuren's album Imagine. Benno co-produced the tracks "Going Wrong" feat. DJ Shah & Chris Jones, "Unforgivable" feat. Jaren, "Face To Face", "Hold On To Me" feat. Audrey Gallagher, the mega-hit "In And Out Of Love" feat. Sharon Den Adel, "Never Say Never" feat. Krezip's Jacqueline Govaert, "Rain" feat. Cathy Burton and "What If" feat. Vera Ostrova.Imagine
In 2010, he co-wrote and co-produced all tracks on Mirage except for "Minack" which Armin made with Ferry Corsten.
In 2013, Benno co-wrote all 15 tracks on Armin's album Intense.
On 2015's Embrace, Benno contributed co-wrote "Embrace" (Armin Only 2015 Theme) feat. Eric Vloeimans, "Another You" feat. Mr. Probz, "Strong Ones" feat. Cimo Frankel, "Make It Right" feat. Angel Taylor, "Face Of Summer" feat. Sarah deCourcy, "Heading Up High" feat. Kensington, "Gotta Be Love" feat. Lyrica Anderson, "Hands To Heaven" feat. Rock Mafia, "Caught In The Slipstream" feat. BullySongs, "Embargo" feat. Cosmic Gate, "Freefall" feat. BullySongs, "Indestructible" feat. DBX, "Old Skool" and "Off The Hook" feat. Hardwell.
In 2019, he helped Armin on his album Balance. He co-produced the tracks "Such For Love" feat. Avalan, "Something Real" feat. Avaian Grays and Jordan Shaw, "Wild Wild Son" feat. Sam Martin, "Phone Down" feat. Garibay, "Sunny Days" feat. Josh Cumbee, "Runaway" feat. Candace Sosa, "It Could Be" vs. Inner City, "Unlove You" feat. Ne-Yo, "Therapy" feat. James Newman, "Waking Up With You" feat. David Hodges, "Don't Let Me Go" feat. Matluck, "Million Voices", "Show Me Love" with Above & Beyond, "Song I Sing" feat. Haliene, "High On Your Love" feat. James Newman, "I Need You" feat. Garibay & Olaf Blackwood, "Lonely For You" feat. Bonnie McKee, "Always" feat. BT & Nation Of One, "All Comes Down" feat. Cimo Frankel, "Miles Away" feat. Sam Martin and "Stickup".
In 2021, Benno was part of every track on Armin's A State Of Trance Forever album.
Taking Gaia on tour (2014–2019) He and Armin have also co-produced songs under the alias Gaia; at the 2014 Ultra Music Festival, the two producers performed for the first time as a group as part of the A State of Trance 650: New Horizons show on the final day of the festival.
In October 2018, they performed live for the very first time at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. As explained in this interview, they later went back in the studio with the live hooks, loops and snippets to craft the first (and to date only) Gaia album called "Moons Of Jupiter" which was released in June 2019. The album could also be experienced as one continuous DJ mix on Beatport.
Parting ways with Armin van Buuren (2024) Armin van Buuren and Benno de Goeij parted ways somewhere between 2023 and 2024, as Benno hasn't been featured in the credits of any of the Armin van Buuren singles released after "Es Vedra" (2024), these singles being: "Gimme The Love" (with Seth Hills & Alessia Labate) - Released: 2025-05-23 "Bach To The Future" (with BLR) - Released: 2025-05-09 "Dream A Little Dream" (with Sam Gray) - Released: 2025-04-25 "Sound Of You" (with Rob Swire & Pendulum) - Released: 2025-03-27 "Angels" (Extended) / (VIP Mix) (with Punctual & EVALINA) - Released: 2025-03-20 / 2025-03-13 "Keep The Faith" (with Bon Jovi) - Released: 2025-02-28 "All Night" (with John Cristian) - Released: 2025-01-30 "Love" (with Omnia) - Released: 2025-01-17 "Viva L’Opera" (with Natalia Gioia) - Released: 2024-12-13 "Extreme Ways" (with Moby) - Released: 2024-11-22 "Late Checkout" (with W&W) - Released: 2024-11-08 "Freedom" (with Oliver Heldens & Sam Harper) - Released: 2024-10-25 "Racing Spirit" - Released: 2024-10-11 "ALIVE" - Released: 2025-06-27 "Sarabande" (with Vini Vici and Ana Timopei) - Released: 2024-10-04 "Pulstar" - Released: 2024-09-27 "Part Of Me" (with Louis III) - Released: 2024-09-20 "Follow The Light" (with Hardwell) - Released: 2024-09-06 "Love Is Eternity" (with Agents Of Time feat. ORKID) - Released: 2024-08-30 "Let Me Show You" (With Camisra)2a7EPJ2PxMr2S4gRmKFmCR - Released: 2024-08-23 As of 2025, the reasons for this split remain unknown.
Present day: return as Rank 1 and new BnO alias (2024-) In September 2024, Benno released a brand new solo alias (his first since the early '00s) called "BnO". On X (formerly Twitter) Benno announced the project with the following quote:
"I've been pretty silent for the last year, and been exploring new directions. One of these resulted in the track Take Me Away with @lulleauxmusic and @semrozendaal under my new alias BnO (@whois_bno). Do you like this late summer vibe?"
Two tracks have been released so far, these being "Take Me Away" (2024) and "Before You Love Me" (2025) alongside Lulleaux. The former even received a Rank 1 Remix, the first Rank 1 Remix since "Sunrise" (2022).
2025 saw Benno return as Rank 1 with the release of "Strobo", the first Rank 1 solo single since "Superstring" (2016): it also saw the return of the classic "alternative" Rank 1 mix with the Deeper Dub Mix. A potential third BnO single and Lulleaux collaboration was teased in May 2025; based on the tags Benno used in his post, it seems this new track will be called "Moment With You".
Discography
Singles As Rank 1 Singles 1999 Rank 1 – "Black Snow / The Citrus Juicer" 1999 Rank 1 – "Airwave (Innercity Theme 1999)" 2001 Rank 1 feat. Shanokee – "Such Is Life (Sensation Anthem 2001)" 2002 Rank 1 – "Awakening" 2003 Rank 1 – "Breathing (Airwave 2003)" 2003 Rank 1 feat. Shanokee – "It's Up to You (Symsonic)" 2004 Rank 1 – "Unreleased Tracks from the Album Symsonic: Conspiracy / Cosmomatic / Down from the Deep" 2004 Rank 1 – "Beats at Rank-1 Dotcom (Trance Energy Anthem 2005) / After Me" 2005 Rank 1 – "Opus 17 / Top Gear" 2007 Armin van Buuren vs. Rank 1 feat. Kush – "This World Is Watching Me" 2007 Alex M.O.R.P.H. vs. Rank 1 – "Life Less Ordinary" 2008 Rank 1 vs. Jochen Miller – "And Then..." 2009 Rank 1 – "L.E.D. There Be Light (Trance Energy Anthem 2009)" 2009 Rank 1 – "Symfo (Sunrise Festival Theme 2009)" 2010 Rank 1 vs. Jochen Miller – "The Great Escape (enTrance Theme 2010)" 2010 Nic Chagall, Rank 1 & Wippenberg – "100" 2012 Rank 1 & Jochen Miller feat. Sarah Bettens – "Wild and Perfect Day" 2012 Cerf, Mitiska & Jaren with Rank 1 – "Witness" 2012 Rank 1 – "7 Instead of 8" 2013 Rank 1 vs. M.I.K.E. – "Elements of Nature" 2013 Rank 1 – "Floorlifter" 2013 Rank 1 – "13.11.11" 2014 Rank 1 & Dennis Sheperd – "Freudenrausch" 2014 Rank 1 – "Airwave (21st Century Mix)" 2015 Rank 1 vs. M.I.K.E. Push – "Juno"