Roger Shah

Roger Shah
Birth name Roger-Pierre Shah
Also known as Sunlounger, Purple Mood, Savannah, Black Pearl, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island, Global Experience
Born 29 November 1972 (1972-11-29) (age 39)
Esslingen am Neckar, Germany
Genres Balearic Trance
Ambient
Chillout
Electronica
Occupations DJ, Producer, Radio show host/DJ of Magic Island
Instruments Synthesizer, Equalizer, etc.
Years active 1996 - present
Labels Armada, Black Hole, Anjunabeats, Magic Island
Associated acts Sunlounger, Global Experience, Mellomania, North Dakota
Website http://www.rogershah.net/
Roger Shah@Facebook
Roger Shah@Myspace

Roger Shah (aka Dj Shah, Sunlounger) is a German electronic music composer and producer.[1]

Contents

Biography

Early History: Born in Esslingen in southern Germany to a German mother and a Pakistani father. His brother is Pedro del Mar, also a Trance DJ, hosts a bi-weekly vocal trance show called Mellomania. Roger first began to hit his production stride in his native country in 1999 putting out the tracks ‘Claps’, ‘The Mission’ & ‘Tides of Time’. In 2003 his ‘High’ release was signed by Virgin Records imprint Nebula. This marked his first non-domestic release and over the course of the next 5 years he inked productions to a range of trance labels - ones that came to include Anjunabeats, VANDIT & Black Hole.

The Armin Connection: In 2007 Armin van Buuren named Shah’s ‘Who Will Find Me’ release as his favourite track of 2007. Having heard the demo of its follow-up, Van Buuren saw crossover potential in the track and made contact in early 2008 to ask if Shah would like to collaborate on it. The result was the Chris Jones song ‘Going Wrong’… A national top 5 smash in The Netherlands, the track went on to become one of the biggest selling trance singles of the year. From there Magic Island Records – Shah’s primary label moved from his own stable to that of one of Armin’s industry-leading Armada Music.

Magic Island Records: An imprint for both Roger’s own material and that of likeminded producers, Magic Island releases have quickly become fixtures in the CDJs of the world’s biggest spinners. Notable up and coming names like Ralph Fritsch, DJ Cosmo, Kim Svard and Walsh & McAuley have all had releases on the label.

‘Songbook’: The M.I. deal’s quickest produce of the Magic Island/Armada deal was Roger’s first artist album, ‘Songbook’. Strongly received by both press and fans alike, it was praised for its innovative dual club mix and acoustic version approach. Singles taken from it like ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’ and the aforementioned ‘Going Wrong’ & ‘Who Will Find Me’ (a Top 20 ASOT Tune of the Year in ‘08) proved to be particularly popular.

Live & DJ Performances: In late 2008 Shah took the decision to change his artist name. Dropping the ‘DJ’ prefix, he revised it to Roger Shah – a move that signalled a move away from straightforward DJ sets. His successive live-on-stage more concert themed ones have brought a percevible change to how trance music was presented to an audience. During live performance, Roger Shah frequently uses a wireless keyboard interface such as the M-Audio Oxygen 25 (25 key USB midi controller). Roger Shah has mentioned numerous times that will perform with his laptop instead of CD.

Pseudonyms & Side Projects: In addition to his own-name tracks, Roger has also produced under a matrix of other sun-tipped aliases. Notable among them are his ‘pka’ DJ Shah, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island & Savannah. Shah is also one half of the Anjunabeats released act Purple Moods, Black Hole project Global Experience and ASOT’s Black Pearl, whose ’06 – ’09 spanning singles ‘Coral Sea’, ‘Java’, ‘Bounty Island’ and ‘Rise’ generated much additional interest in Shah’s solo productions.

Sunlounger: Sunlounger is without doubt Roger’s best known nom de plume. It was under this handle that he released the ‘Another Day On The Terrace' long-player in 2008. It reached No.1 on Dutch iTunes’ ‘all-music-genres’ chart and spawned four singles: ‘In & Out’, ‘Aguas Blancas’, ‘Crawling’ & ‘White Sand’. The project become so celebrated that Roger expanded Sunlounger into a live act - a performance of which was featured on Armada’s ArminOnly DVD. It was this experience that he credited with his latter wholesale move into live Roger Shah performances. In 2009 Roger released the Sunlounger follow-up LP ‘Sunny Tales'. It's progeny singles included ‘Catwalk’, ‘Mediterranean Flower’, ‘Change Your Mind’ and the much-revered ‘Lost’ - voted as Tune of the Year for the 2008 A State of Trance radio show hosted by Armin van Buuren.

‘Magic Island: Music For Balearic People’ – The Compilations: Shah’s compilation series has so far seen three outings (2007, 2008 & 2010). Encapsulating everything Roger stands for musically, their intrinsically White Island trance sound has sound-tracked an uncountable number of clubbers holidays. Roger typically uses the compilations as first-listen holders for future singles & collaborations with Vol.2 including ones with Signum, Judge Jules & Amanda O’Riordan and Tenishia.

‘Magic Island: Music For Balearic People’ – The Radio Show: Broadcasting weekly, Magic Island – Music For Balearic People is a 2 hour radio show carried by the DI-fm station and is currently being syndicated to many other countries, most recently including Mexico and Jordan. Presented by Roger every Friday between 21.00 GMT (22:00 CET), it showcases him playing melodic trance through the first hour with the 2nd focusing on Balearic, chillout and Dream trance.

Remixes: Shah has reworked tracks for legendary vocalists like Sarah McLachlan and Nadia Ali. He’s also remixed tunes for a litany of trance-masters including Tiësto, Armin Van Buuren, Mark Norman, York, Cosmic Gate, Josh Gabriel, Johan Gielen, System F, The Thrillseekers, Solarstone, Three Drives, Matt Darey & Oceanlab. Most recently Roger has rewired Andain’s ‘Beautiful Things ‘10’ and Richard Durand’s ‘Always The Sun’.

Discography

DJ/Roger Shah

Albums

2000 The Album
2008 Songbook
2011 Openminded

Singles

1999 Claps
1999 Commandments
2000 Riddim
2001 Tides Of Time (feat. No Iron)
2002 High
2003 Sunday Morning
2004 Sunset Road (with York)
2006 Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (feat. Jan Johnston)
2007 Palmarosa
2007 Who Will Find Me (feat. Adrina Thorpe)
2008 Going Wrong (with Armin van Buuren feat. Chris Jones)
2008 Don't Wake Me Up (feat. Inger Hansen)
2008 Back To You (feat. Adrina Thorpe)
2009 You're So Cool (with Tenishia feat. Lorilee)
2009 To The Sky (with Chris Jones as Open Minded)
2009 I'm Not God (with Tenishia feat. Lorilee)
2009 Healesville Sanctuary (feat. Signum)
2010 Hold On (with Judge Jules feat. Amanda Angelic)
2010 Ancient World (with Signum)
2011 Morning Star (feat. Moya Brennan)

Compilations

2005 The Ultimate Chillout Collection
2008 Sunlounger Sessions
2008 Magic Island: Music For Balearic People
2009 Magic Island: Music For Balearic People Vol. 2
2010 Magic Island: Music For Balearic People Vol. 3
2010 Sunlounger – The Downtempo Edition

Remixes

as Dj Shah

2008 'Nadia Ali' - Crash and Burn

as Roger Shah

2008 'Sunlounger & Cap Feat. Stephanie Asscher' - Heart Of The Sun
2009 'Richard Durand' - Always The Sun
2009 'Roger Shah & Tenishia' - You're So Cool
2009 'Roger Shah & Tenishia' - I'm Not God
2009 'Roger Shah & Signum' - Healesville Sanctuary
2009 'Ira Losco' - Shoulders Of Giants
2009 'Samara' - Verano
2010 'Andain' - Beautiful Things
2010 'Roger Shah & Signum' - Ancient World

Sunlounger

Albums

2007 Another Day On The Terrace
2008 Sunny Tales
2010 The Beach Side of Life

Singles

2006 White Sand
2007 Aguas Blancas
2007 In & Out
2008 Crawling
2008 Catwalk / Mediterranean Flower
2008 Lost (feat. Zara)
2009 Change Your Mind (feat. Kyler England)
2010 Found (feat. Zara)
2010 Breaking Waves (feat. Inger Hansen)

Black Pearl

Singles

2006 Bounty Island
2008 Coral Sea
2009 Java
2010 Rise
2010 Discovery

Savannah

Singles

2006 Savannah La Mar
2009 Body Lotion
2010 Darling Harbour

Global Experience

Singles

2005 Tennessee / Dakar
2006 Zanzibar / San Salvador
2007 Madras / Malaysia
2008 Koengen

Remixes

2006 'Brian Laruso' - Song For The Ocean
2006 'Mark Norman Presents Celine' - Colour My Eyes
2006 'Tiesto Feat. Maxi Jazz' - Dance4Life
2006 'North Dakota' - Superstring 2.6
2007 'Shane 54' - 1000 Lullabies
2007 'Johan Gielen' - Revelations -Right From My Heart-
2008 'High Noon At Salinas' - Celebration
2008 'Charles McThorn Feat. Elles De Graaf' - Winds Will Turn

'Magic Island - Music for Balearic People' RadioShow

Produced by Roger Shah, 'Magic Island - Music for Balearic People' is a weekly two-hour chill-out, balearic trance radioshow that airs on DI.FM and Beat 100.9. The show first aired on May 2, 2008. Trance and progressive music are played in the first hour of the radioshow and chill-out Balearic Trance music is played in the second hour.

References

External links