Gabriel & Dresden was the project name of the DJs and producers Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden from San Francisco. Their popularity and activities were centered in the United States. They won the WMC award as Best American DJ twice in 2007 and 2008, the same day the group split-up.

Early Years (1980–2001)

Dave Dresden's musical ability was developed during 15 years inside a deejay booth, while Josh Gabriel has an undergraduate college degree in music composition from the California Institute for the Arts.

Josh started experimenting with synthesizers and computers in the early 1980s and attended music school in Holland and Los Angeles. He founded the music creation tool Mixman in the 1990s which was one of the first programs to make music using loops of digital audio.

At the same time, Dave was a club deejay in a suburb of New York City as well as a renowned US dance music journalist. He became the Music Director of grooveradio.com.

Dave met Pete Tong at a party being hosted by grooveradio.com at the Miami Winter Music Conference in March 2001. Pete asked him to help find music for his radio show Essential Selection.[2] Dave gave Pete a record called "Wave 3", which Josh had given to Leon Alexander. Pete played it on the Essential Selection and also used it for his compilation that same year. Pete Tong then gave Dave the opportunity to do a spec mix of New Order and Dave asked Josh to work on it with him.

Dave and Josh joined forces in 2001 and made a name for themselves by creating numerous remixes. In 2002 Gabriel & Dresden released "Lament" (Saw Recordings) in the United States, their first single. The first Gabriel & Dresden gig was Arc in New York City.

Rise To Fame (2002–2008)

In 2004 they released their first Mix-CD Bloom. They entered the prestigious DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ's poll in 2003 at #43. After having their seventh #1 Billboard Dance Chart Hit with the Madonna & Britney Spears collaboration "Me Against the Music" they worked on their own group Motorcycle with singer and songwriter Jes Brieden, with their track "As The Rush Comes" in 2004. They have steadily climbed the chart every year since then, placing at 40 in 2004, 22 in 2005, and 33 in 2006. In 2005 the single "Arcadia" was released although it was also the first track on Bloom. At the end of the same year the track "Without You Near" was released at Coldharbour Recordings. This track was produced in cooperation with Markus Schulz and Departure.

In 2005 they created the Gabriel & Dresden logo, known for its keyboard shape was designed by Bruno Silva. The logo features the pianos key notes with dots on the keys for the notes G and D. It includes the name of the group, Gabriel above and Dresden below. They launched their record label Organized Nature that serves primarily to release their own music. Gabriel & Dresden produced the track "Zocalo" with Armin van Buuren which was released on his album/LP Shivers.

They presented "Gabriel & Dresden bring you Organized Nature", on March 24 during the WMC. The Winter Music Conference, Realivze Tribe Productions, and Polka Dot present the Official Record Label Launch of Organized Nature. The event lasted for five hours, Live PA From Motorcycle and BORIS MD of Departure; Appears on Without You Near by Markus Schulz on the track were Gabriel & Dresden has left a mark as well as Zocalo by Armin Van Buuren. Gabriel & Dresden were lauded as "America's Best DJs" at the Miami Winter Music Conference's International Dance Music Awards.

Logo by Bruno Silva.They also took home an award for Best Alternative / Dance Single for their hit "Dangerous Power" featuring the voice of Jan Burton. This is not the first time they have been cited for their DJing, winning the Best New DJ award at the 2005 Dancestar awards and performing on the show as Motorcycle with Jes Brieden. They have also worked with Pete Houser, a friend from the California Bay Area which created the Alias Bigtop. They released ORG004 also known as Sub & Tidal, with Sub appearing on their DJ Mix Compilation "Bloom". Dave Dresden has appeared as Summit with Peter Lorimer. The self-titled Gabriel & Dresden was released in 2007 bringing them a great year as America's #1 DJ's, the same year saw the releases of "Tracking Treasure Down" and "Dangerous Power". They had a Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number one hit in July 2006 with the song "Tracking Treasure Down", written by Molly Bancroft, who was also the vocalist on the track. Bancroft also wrote and sang on their hit "Let Go." After the success of the album, the duo decided to tour around the globe to emphasize their support for electronic dance music which is still considered an underground genre.

Departure (March 30, 2008)

The duo finished their last tour with two appearances at the WMC in Miami. They played a 5+ hour set at the Pawn Shop on March 28, 2008 and a closing 1 hour set at the Beatport/Remix Hotel Pool Party at the National Hotel on March 30, 2008 (with visuals provided by VJ Psyberpixie). The Andain project will be completed and released in 2008.[citation needed] Josh Gabriel will now be touring solo and focusing more on his solo album due out later in 2008.

“ Yes, the rumor is true. Gabriel & Dresden have parted ways for the time being. Over the past year, Josh and I have been moving apart as artists and we decided rather than milk it and be moderately happy together that we separate and examine ourselves as individual artists for a while. Our final date was the beatport pool party in Miami on March 30. For those who were there, I want to thank each and every one of you for showing Josh and I the love and support that you did. A lot of the set was songs that we have individually been working on interspersed with a few fan favorites. I will remember that hour and fifteen minutes forever because I certainly felt the love with all the hands in the air and the well-wishes.
After WMC I went into the hospital to have shoulder surgery. I had a torn rotator cuff and after years of constant dislocations to my shoulder, I wanted to get that out of the way so that I can be 100% when I hit the road in mid-may as a solo artist.”

Influences and Legacy

Throughout the careers of Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden, they have been a big influence on Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Unlike other deejay groupings/bands such as Above & Beyond who are dedicated to trance based composition, Gabriel & Dresden mixed club and house music like Deep Dish, another duo that created many #1 charting songs and remixes.

Gabriel & Dresden were both influenced by Alexander Coe, musically known Sasha, who inspired them to write a more minimal tone of tracks. This influence can be heard in their only self-titled studio album, Gabriel & Dresden (album) with tracks like uplifting "Eleven" with Scarlett Etienne, "Enemy" with Jan Burton and the repetitive "Mass Repeat". They also have rock-based influences which make some songs sound indie. Josh Gabriel was influenced by the producer James Holden as well as Depeche Mode and The Cure. Dave Dresden was also inspired by Jonathan Peters.

Gabriel & Dresden have been a great influence on various artists like Christopher Norman, Blake Jarell, Tim Grube, Chephren Blake, and Brian Martinelli. In 2006 a compilation of Gabriel & Dresden remixes was created by Geyser & Massa and released in Russia on the Music1st label.

Christopher Norman, who mixes under his own name and the alias Retrobyte, works as part of Organized Nature. Due to the breakup of Gabriel & Dresden, the expected full length Retrobyte album was delayed to an unknown date in 2008 or 2009. Gabriel & Dresden named Christopher Norman as the breakthrough DJ of 2008 in the 2007 DJMag awards.

Even though they took separate tracks, on October 29 when the results of the DJ Mag Top 100 DJ's of 2008 were announced, Gabriel & Dresden came in at the 65th position