2013 was the year that Paul van Dyk returned to the classics. Less 'Strings of Life', however, than the strings at the Munich National Theatre, mashing together Verdi and electronica in the most auspicious surroundings of the Bavarian Opera Festival.

“It was a big challenge,” he says. “It wasn't about combining Verdi's music with electronic instruments, it was like transferring the compositions into something that could become a proper club night. I'm always up for things that are artistically more challenging.”

But it's been the scale of one other project that has pretty much dominated his year — bringing together the third in his Politics of Dancing series. This will be no ordinary mix album, however. Rather than harvest new tracks months in advance, instead he went into the studio with a wealth of producers to make original compositions. “It became more an artists collaboration album, and I'm really very proud of it,” he says. Who is involved, he can't say. But 2014 should reveal all.