Robert Miles

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Dreamland CD Cover
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Dreamland CD Cover

Robert Miles (born Roberto Concina, November 3, 1969, in Neuchâtel, Switzerland) is an Italian record producer, composer and musician in trance, ambient, techno and other kinds of electronic music.

Contents

[edit] History

He was born to Antonietta and Albino Concina. 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, Miles wrote his most famous dream house work, titled "Children". 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 Europe and topped the charts in many countries. It earned Miles Platinum records in UK and Germany and Gold records in many other countries. The single was considered the largest single of 1996. "Children" fell just shy of reaching Top-20 status on the US charts, 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 Fiorella Quinn. 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 written by Hit-Songwriters Billy Steinberg, Rick Nowels and Marie Claire D'ubaldo. 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). The song "One and One" was originally written for a Polish leading female artist Edyta Górniak. She recorded it a year later on her international debut album, Edyta.

In November 1997, Miles released another track "Freedom" which was one of the key tracks on the album 23am, released November 27, 1997. Containing a different feel from the previously light Dreamland, 23am incorporated more lyrics-driven songs than its predecessor while maintaining Miles' trademark piano sound from the first album. It was during this time he worked with Richard D. James under the name Aphex Twin for certain duets.

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 2003, an album mainly containing remixes of many of the songs found on Organik was released. The album, fitfully titled Organik Remixes contains remixes by the winners of the remixing contest held on Robert Miles' website, as well as remixes from well known artists such as The Future Sound of London. The album also has one new track from Robert Miles, titled "Bhairav", which features the powerful vocals of Amelia Cuni.

In late 2003, Miles moved from his home in London to Los Angeles. He has started his own production label, Salt 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.

Robert now lives in Ibiza, where he is recording his new Robert Miles album.

[edit] Selected discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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