I Chose Life

Dennis Roseth is a name that rang some Big-Ben-sized bells for us here at Dissident when we connected with him a few years ago. We couldn't quite place it at first, but had a sense that he was someone we remembered having played an important role in the history of progressive house and techno styles in the US. We were right! Dennis is a long-time DJ, and was a member of the illustrious Balance Promote Group DJ pool in the late 90s and early 2000s. Balance DJs were the DJs who, in North America, would be on the receiving end of the most upfront UK and International promos, the driving forces pushing progressive dance sounds in their respective cities. Dennis had been well-known and appreciated regionally and nationally for his consistent commitment to these more sophisticated sounds. But where had he been? Perhaps a decade had passed. The reality was that he had fallen prey to insidious chronic illness, to the point that he did not believe he would ever be able to DJ or write music again. He was, quite nearly literally, a dead man walking. He decided to live. To do all he could to come back to life. Catalyzing his healing through nutrition, exercise, and principles of functional medicine, Dennis found himself improving, and started working on tracks and ideas he had left behind when illness had taken over. Soon 10 tracks were done, and Dennis was looking to fulfill the dream that had seemed impossible just a few years earlier: a proper release for his album, appropriately titled I Chose Life. Fast-forward to 2020. After a couple of delays, we are ready to release this album, this tribute to life, in all it's beauty and pain. This is our kind of story and the album is excellent. Dissident is releasing 6 tracks from the album, and the full experience will be available independently as a free download for album buyers. And Dennis? He is today a human being fully alive, splitting his time between his family, professional life, music, building out his soon-to-open Red Room Studios, and even starting a family farm and apothecary to promote natural healing resources and permaculture. Says Dennis, I wanted this album to give people hope, that no matter what they're going through, things can get better. I felt like I was dead. I Chose Life. Maybe you can, too. We hope it does exactly that, and you enjoy it as much as we do!