Robert Miles
Robert Miles (born Roberto Concina, November 3, 1969, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland) is a DJ playing trance, techno and other kinds of music. He was born to Antonietta and Albino. Although not a musical prodigy, Miles became proficient at playing piano during his youth and has been in the music 'scene' since 1988. He worked as DJ in some Italian clubs and in 1990, he invested his savings and bought second-hand equipment to establish his own studio; however, his initial compositions went unnoticed.
In 1994, bothered by the large number of deaths within the Italian rave community, specifically amoung younger participants, Miles wrote his most famous dream house work, entitled "Children". "Children" came about as the rave community faced opposition from the mothers of these ravers, who had banded together to form a coalition that was applying pressure on the Italian parliament to create stricter standards on raves. The single picked up steam slowly, and within two weeks of its official release in 1995, it had sold more than 30,000 copies all over the Europe. "Children" topped charts in many countries. It earned Robert Platinum records in UK and Germany and Gold records in many others including non-European countries like Israel. The single was considered the largest single of 1996. "Children" fell just shy of reaching Top-20 status on the US charts, however, but remains popular with DJs. In December 2004, "Children" reached new audiences in the UK when it was sampled on a collaboration between Angel City and Ministry of Sound, entitled "Do You Know?", which reached the Top 10.
Miles' next single was "Fable", with vocals performed by Feralla Qunin. His debut album Dreamland was released on June 7, 1996 in Europe where it was a hit, and was also released a few days later in U.S. with a new track "One and One" sung by Maria Nayler. This new track became very popular and was later released as a single in U.S. and Germany. At the end of 1996, Miles released a new version of Dreamland, called Dreamland - the winter edition in Germany. It was largely similar to Dreamland, but contained the track "One and One" (which wasn't released on the European version of Dreamland).
In November 1997, Miles released another track "Freedom" which was one of the key tracks on the album "23 am", released November 27, 1997. Containing a different feel from the previously light "Dreamland", "23 am" incorporated more lyrics-driven songs than it's predecessor while maintaining Miles' trademark piano sound from the first album.
Miles fell silent until June 11, 2001, when his new album, "Organik", was released on both vinyl and CD. Featuring the new single "Paths", "Organik" was considered by many fans to be a break from the style that Miles had pioneered in his first two albums.
In late 2003, Miles moved from his home in London to Los Angeles. He has started his own production label, S:alt Records, and in 2004 released an album created under a partnership with Trilok Gurtu entitled Miles_Gurtu. According to his website, Robert is expected to release one final album under the "Robert Miles" name, bringing his music career under that name to a close.