Robert Miles

Robert Miles, born Roberto Concina on 3 November 1969 in Fleurier, Switzerland to Italian immigrant parents, died on 9 May 2017 in Ibiza.

As a child his family moved to Fagagna (Friuli) where he became an accomplished pianist. Active from 1984, he worked as a DJ in clubs and Italian private radio; in 1990 he invested his savings to set up his own recording studio and a pirate radio station.

In 1994 he composed a trance/chill-out piece based on acoustic guitar chords and soft synth effects titled Children, later developed into a dream-trance song centered on a piano theme. After its official release in 1995 the single was an immediate hit: over 350000 copies sold in Europe in two weeks, number one in many countries and three consecutive weeks as ‘Essential Tune of The Week’ on Pete Tong’s show, triggering a bidding war that led to his signing with Deconstruction Records in the UK.

Remaining number one on the Euro Top 100 for thirteen weeks, Children had sold more than 5 million copies worldwide by 1997; it earned Miles multiple platinum records, a 1997 Brit Award for Best International Male Newcomer (he is the only Italian to have won this award), a World Music Award and other trophies. The track is regarded as a trance classic and is often credited with bringing the genre to the global stage.

His debut album, Dreamland, was released on 7 June 1996 in Europe; it includes a cover of One and One by Polish pop diva Edyta Górniak, which reached number one on the Euro Top 100 Singles Chart for six consecutive weeks over the Christmas period and helped define the ‘dream-house’ sound he pioneered.

The following single, Fable, was partly used in the trailer for the film Ever After. In November 1997 he released Freedom featuring the vocals of Kathy Sledge (of Sister Sledge) on his second album, 23am, which is more vocal-oriented while retaining Miles’s characteristic piano sound and marking an evolution from the club orientation of Dreamland.

After leaving Deconstruction/BMG and his former management in London he founded the independent label S:alt Records and was managed by Gavino Prunas.