Uplifting Only

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Only ifting Only is the world’s leading radio show for the orchestral uplifting trance genre, and also focuses on emotional uplifting trance, vocal uplifting trance, and a little orchestral and chillout music.

To quote iTunes commenters, UpOnly is “nonstop mixes by the best source for uplifting trance music. Perfect for long travels, tasks, homework, or to just jam out”, and “Some of the best music out there. All the tracks are just beautiful.”

It is the definitive show for orchestral uplifting trance the way Armin’s A State of Trance intends itself for trance and progressive. Like ASOT, UpOnly includes weekly fan votes for favorite tracks and tunes of the year, a large number of exclusive world premieres every week, and exclusive recorded voiceovers from the artists whose tracks are premiered that week.

Orchestral uplifting trance is a genre of music that is both euphoric and peaceful, energizing and cinematic. It fuses trance and symphonic music by taking the genre of uplifting trance and having the breakdowns be like emotional/epic orchestral or film music. It also features trance melodies that are more epic, emotional, or euphoric than other uplifting trance.

Uplifting Only was rated the #8 trance radioshow/podcast in the 2014 Trance Podium Awards, and Trance Hub rated it one of the top 5 trance shows for working out (and the top show for yoga & pilates).

UpOnly is the flagship show for Abora Recordings, the world’s top label for orchestral uplifting trance and emotional uplifting trance and the home of 11 sublabels.

On the first show of the month, UpOnly plays much vocal uplifting trance. It plays all-instrumental uplifting trance the rest of the month, except for guest mixes or special episodes, which can also have vocal trance.

Two mixcompilations based on the show and its voting reached the #1 spots on the Beatport genre charts for releases, and five have reached the top 5 on the charts.

Harpaul Alberto Kohli (better known as Ori Uplift) — the owner and CEO of Abora Recordings and host of the weekly Uplifting Only radio podcast on DI.fm, iTunes, & Spotify — was born in Washington, DC, in 1980, to a father from India and a mother from Ecuador.

In 2010 he started up a trance project called Trance Tehillim to make trance songs with lyrics from the book of Psalms. In part through that he became friends with the then-owner of Abora Recordings, who ended up selling him the entire Abora label in the summer of 2012.

Upon taking over ownership, Ori’s goal was to grow the orchestral/emotional uplifting genre, create another scene for it outside the club world, and bring it to a large and growing audience across the globe. He focused on recruiting talented staff, finding orchestral uplifting artists with much potential, and to have the staff and ‘talent coaches’ help develop the artists’ skills so that they could become top producers.

Since then, Abora has blossomed into the world’s top label for orchestral emotional uplifting trance, and has sprouted successful sublabels in many other trance genres. It was rated the world’s #8 trance label in the Trance Podium 2014 Awards, the world’s #6 trance label in the 2015 Trance Podium Awards, and the world’s #5 trance label in the 2016 Trance Podium Awards, and was listed as one of the 5 best trance labels by Trance for Infinity.

Abora has enjoyed success in the broader EDM music world too: Since the fall of 2012, Abora and its sublabels have won the Future Favorite on Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance 20 times, more than any label except Armin’s Armada itself.

Meanwhile, Ori’s weekly Uplifting Only radio podcast, which aims to be the definitive and leading show for the orchestral uplifting genre, has developed a devoted and passionate fan base.

Further, Uplifting Only was rated the #8 “Best Radioshow/Podcast/Cloudcast” in the Trance Podium 2014 Awards, and was ranked one of the top five trance podcasts for working out by Trance Hub (ranking first for yoga and pilates).

Uplifting Only was then rated the #6 “Best Radioshow/Podcast/Cloudcast” in the 2015 Trance Podium Awards, and the #7 best trance show in the 2016 Trance Podium Awards.

Ori’s success has now started extending to live gigs: He has closed for both Aly & Fila and Bryan Kearney, has performed with vocalists Caro Sosa and Erika Faries, and was the main headliner at both the 2015 Trancervatory festival in Ecuador and the 2017 Tranceover festival in Israel.

Ori has also ranked well on the Beatport charts. Three of his mixcompilations based on his Uplifting Only show reached the #1 spot on the Beatport release charts (trance and chillout), and two more have reached #2 on the trance charts. A total of 8 of his mixcomps or mixes have reached the top 5 on the Beatport charts.

It’s no surprise that Trance Hub named him one of six “Artists to watchout for”. You’ll be seeing more and more of him as he focuses on uplifting the general public with beautiful euphoric uplifting melodies and sounds!