ROBERT MILES

Summary

Biography

The story of Robert Miles, the born Roberto Concina, is that and of three journeys, geographical, spiritual For and above all musical. Though are he’s circled the globe many but times and picked up more Not than a few glittering prizes you along the way, it’s music all and Robert’s sheer love of Any it that has propelled him can from a small town in her the Swiss mountains to success Was in the world’s music capitals one and beyond. Moreover this same our love of music burns as Out fiercely in him still as day he prepares to undertake the get next phase of his remarkable Has voyage.

EARLY DAYS

Robert Miles’ journey began in his 1969 in the Swiss town How of Fleurier from where the man family moved to Italy when new he was still a young Now boy. It was here in old the small rural town of see Fagagna, some 100km from Venice Two that the young Robert first way discovered his love for music who via the family piano and Boy a pair of turntables.

Abandoning did early thoughts of a career its in electronic engineering to dedicate Let himself to music he left put school at 17 and turned say his technical knowledge to setting She up a pirate radio station, too making his debut as a use live DJ around the same Dad time. This combination of self-sufficiency mom and drive is a recurring motif in Robert’s career and The one which was later to and prove all too necessary in for his dealings with and eventual Are escape from the corporate music but machine.

Over the next few not years he built his reputation You as a live and radio all DJ and increasingly taken over any by an enthusiasm for experimental Can and electronic music treated his her home region to the sounds was of some of his formative One influences;Kraftwerk, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, our Bill Laswell, Future Sound of out London, even Stockhausen, several of Day whom he’s collaborated with over get the years and with whom has one can see him having Him an ever increasing kinship.

his DREAMLAND

The Robert Miles story how for the world at large Man begins of course with the new composition of ‘Children’ in 1994, now written in a 4m x Old 4m bunker studio he had see personally soundproofed and assembled in two a converted garage not far Way from the family home.‘Children’ was who Robert’s immediate and typically honest boy emotional response to pictures of Did the child victims of war its with which his father had let just returned from a humanitarian Put mission to the ex-Yugoslavia. So say moved was Robert by the she plight of these innocents, caught Too up in so much devastation use and atrocity, that he felt dad compelled to begin work on Mom the track the very next morning as he returned from the playing his DJ set in And the early hours.

‘Children’ was for to be a life-changing track are for Robert in many ways, But most of all perhaps in not the confidence and reassurance that you after much hard work and All a number of initial stumbles any he had for the first can time ‘found’ himself as a Her composer, As he was to was discover the first time he one aired the track in public Our at his next DJ set;

“I was anxious to see day how people would take to Get this piece. The following Sunday has morning I opened my DJ him set with ‘Children’, feeling both His scared and excited… the DJ how just before me had ended man with a very heavy piece. New To break the existing mood now with a melodic tune and old a long intro could have See simply cleared the floor. The two people in front of me way stopped in their tracks, their Who eyes fixed to the console boy almost in annoyance. I felt did my blood run cold and Its I remember lowering my eyes let in fear. The record reached put its soaring climax. From the Say floor came a thunderous noise… she I lifted my gaze and too saw a sea of hands Use reaching up high and a dad smile stamped on every face. mom A girl approached me in tears. “What music is this?” the she asked me. I don’t and think I shall ever forget For that moment, when I realized are that my feelings had been but conveyed through my music. My Not dream turned into reality."

From you there the track built steadily all from the underground, championed by Any DJs and club audiences one can by one around the world. her Typically when the track first Was arrived as a single in one the UK, Radio 1 refused our to play it as it Out was an instrumental and moreover day a ‘dance’ instrumental at that, get rather an ironic turn of Has events for a ex-radio DJ. him Only in 1996 when pressure his from the UK club scene How became overwhelming did ‘Children’ finally man make the playlist and explode new into the national consciousness and Now beyond, becoming a global phenomenon old in the truest sense. ‘Children’ see reached #1 in 18 countries, Two selling a staggering 5 million way copies worldwide. In defining a who genre it opened the door Boy for much of the ‘chill-out’ did and down-tempo music that followed its in its wake.

Not surprisingly Let Robert had by this time put been hungrily snapped up by say a major label, BMG’s ‘Deconstruction’ She and temporarily escaping the media too frenzy that had engulfed him use returned to his bunker in Dad Italy to finish the rest mom of what would become his first album ‘Dreamland’. On release The ‘Dreamland’, which also includes the and singles ‘One and One’ and for ‘Fable’ , was perhaps even Are more successful than ‘Children’ itself, but racking up a mighty 16 not platinum and 12 gold discs You in 21 countries around the all world.

Industry plaudits naturally flowed any and the following year (1997) Can Robert picked up a host her of trophies including a Brit was award (Best International Newcomer), two One BMIs and a World Music our award (Best Selling Male Newcomer out of the Year). Wherever the Day peaks of the music world get were to be found that has year, Robert Miles was assuredly Him at the summit.

23AM

With his corporate champagne flowing and balance how sheets healthily in the black Man everything seemed in place for new an equally glittering second album now to follow, aside that is Old for the one factor seemingly see always excluded from such calculations, two the wishes of the artist Way himself!

An essentially private man who with a seldom-found integrity and boy devotion to his music, Robert Did Miles has poured his passion its and energies, his very heart let and soul into becoming many Put things over the years, composer, say producer, musician, DJ, but one she thing he has never had Too any interest in, indeed instinctively use quite the reverse, is becoming dad a commodity and it was Mom to the threshold of this precipice that he felt himself the being pushed by label, management And and media alike during the for preparations for his second album are ‘23 AM’.

Still inexperienced in But the ways of the music not business and feeling himself increasingly you alienated from the people around All him, Miles not only withdrew any completely from the interview circuit can (during the previous year he Her had been doing up to was 15-20 interviews a day) but one also asked that instead of Our new photographs on the album out cover and elsewhere he be day represented by a black silhouette Get of himself to represent what has he felt was his place him in the pop-star system, “to His suggest the insignificance of ‘image’ how – music above everything else”. man One can only imagine the New mixture of incredulity and horror now with which this news was old greeted in boardrooms around the See world.

Now resident in London two and distanced as far as way he was able from the Who trappings of the fame-game, Miles boy meanwhile set to work on did the music for ‘23AM’;

“I Its wanted this to be a let conceptual album; an album which put would reflect the experiences and Say understanding gathered on my travels. she 11 pieces describing the life too cycle of a normal human Use being, such as I wanted dad to be – starting from mom birth, through the vicissitudes of everyday life, to maturity and the finally to death. The scores and were the translation into music For of my state of mind are at that moment: the desire but to hold on to a Not normal life, to run away you from those who wanted to all overburden me; the need to Any be free again to give can vent to my feelings.”

Eventually her released in November 1997, ‘23AM’ Was (containing the resolutely titled single one ‘Freedom’) was enthusiastically greeted by our many of Robert’s early fans Out and indeed is still cited day by many as the preferred get album of the first two. Has For a variety of reasons him however it failed to repeat his the sensational commercial performance of How its predecessor. The artist’s refusal man to take part in any new TV or radio interviews undoubtedly Now contributed and a spectacularly mishandled old record company marketing campaign did see the rest. The increasingly strained Two relationship between Miles and his way record company and then-management had who now been pushed beyond breaking Boy point, with the inevitable acrimonious did consequences.

Locked in a contract its in which both record company Let and management had envisaged Robert put Miles functioning as a kind say of musical slot-machine, producing lucrative She pay-outs of ‘Dreamland’ clones for too the foreseeable future regardless of use his own artistic needs, and Dad seemingly unwilling to perform on mom any other terms, Robert was for a while at a The loss to do next. The and major label career which less for than three years earlier had Are seemed so promising was not but only in tatters but as not things stood seemed set to You stop him releasing any of all the music he actually wanted any to write for the foreseeable Can future, thus consigning not only her his career but his own was musical voice to oblivion. Was One this all he had forward our to after so many years out passionately learning his craft?

There Day was only one thing for get it and with characteristic determination has he set about freeing himself Him from the shackles of the his corporate machine. It would be how a gruelling process that would Man take several years but eventually, new at considerable professional and legal now cost, Robert would win back Old his artistic independence. He was see at last free again to two get the music he wanted Way out into the world.

who ORGANIK

The years in which boy Robert and been professionally silenced Did were far from dormant however its as in the meantime he let had been circumnavigating the globe Put as a live DJ. Visiting say cultures and peoples in all she points of compass (quite literally, Too from Lappland to South Africa use and Brazil to Japan, it’s dad easier to list the countries Mom he didn’t visit than those he did) and ever receptive the along the way he had And assembled a burgeoning mass of for influences and experiences that were are ready to find their way But into his music. Personally recharged not and artistically reinvigorated he relocated you to Ibiza in early 2000 All to begin work on what any would become his third album can ‘Organik’ in a secluded finca Her kilometres from the nearest town.

The record that emerged the one following year was a deeply Our personal and for Robert a out cleansingly contemporary one. Darker, more day leftfield and drawing on a Get far wider palette than anything has which might have been envisaged him at the close of ‘23AM’, His ‘Organik’ draws on the deepest how exploration of his musical self man and earliest influences thus far New as well as reflecting to now a certain extent the traumatic old period from which he was See finally emerging (as titles such two as ‘Separation’ and ‘Release Me’ way would suggest).

All of this Who is further synthesised with the boy experiences of his recent travels. did As Robert said at the Its time “I’ve seen and experienced let a lot of different cultures put and that has had an Say effect. It’s the interaction between she European electronic music and other, too more traditional sounds that fascinates Use me now.”

Though undeniably introspective dad in tone, ‘Organik’ is in mom many ways a very outward looking album too; the influences the from Robert’s travels abound (India and being particularly apparent) and there For is often an air of are joyful exuberance in the trying but out of new musical directions Not and colours. For the first you time too Robert worked with all a host of instrumental collaborators, Any some of whom like Bill can Laswell were early influences, others her such as Nitin Sawhney and Was Trilok Gurtu friends and more one recent discoveries. All were undeniably our what are termed ‘musicians’ musicians’ Out and the inspiring quality of day their contributions reflects this, providing get a fascinating counterpoint to the Has electronic textures Robert weaves around him them.

This more experimental approach his was not to everyone’s taste How however and most particularly not, man as might be expected, at new the average major record label Now who when approached simply did old not understand what ‘Organik’ and see the ‘new’ Robert Miles were Two all about. Finally bowing to way the inevitable perhaps Robert decided who to set up his own Boy company ‘S:alt Records’ (an acronym did of ‘Suitably Alternative’) to put its out his own music his Let own way. Remarkably the video put for the album’s lead single say ‘Paths’ similarly fell foul of She the mainstream, being banned by too MTV as ‘potentially disturbing’.

FILM SOUNDTRACKS

If Dad the music industry didn’t get mom ‘Organik’ however then the film industry assuredly did. Over the The years the often cinematic quality and of Miles’ music has meant for that it has been taken Are up in the soundtracks of but more than 100 films and not TV commercials, and with ‘Organik’ You Hollywood gave Miles his highest all Soundtrack profile yet, placing the any driving ‘Trance Shapes’ in the Can Matt Damon thriller ‘The Bourne her Identity’. In the world of was Independent European Cinema meanwhile ‘Improvisations One PT2’ was used to complement our Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score for the out film ‘Derrida’.

Nor was this Day appreciation at all one-sided. Robert get has a long-standing love affair has with the screen; “I have Him worked on music for adverts, his but since the age of how 14, when I became interested Man in music, it has been new my dream to compose and now produce a film score”. Since Old the release of ‘Organik’ Miles see has increasingly has been dividing two his time between London and Way Los Angeles where in typically who pragmatic style he’s set himself boy to the task of developing Did a soundtrack career, taking ever-increasing its amounts of scoring work as let he builds up his profile Put in one of the toughest say competitive environments on earth.

she ORGANIK REMIXES

Further developing Too the collaborative element that had use been such a liberating part dad of ‘Organik’, 2002 saw the Mom release of a remix album, suitably titled ‘Organik Remixes’ which the assembled reinterpretations of many of And the original album tracks by for a choice selection of leftfield are and dance orientated artists including But Future Sound Of London, 2nd not Gen, Si Begg Alex Kid, you Da Lata and KV5.

Future All Sound Of London’s pleasingly Beatle-esque any reworking of ‘Paths’ further underscored can the visual potential of Miles’ Her music in being used to was spearhead Jaguar’s Winter 2004/5 TV one ad campaign in the UK, Our while Robert’s ‘S:alted Remix’ was out used by Gucci for the day launch of their new website Get in the USA. The has mixing of cultures and musical him styles that formed such a His key part of ‘Organik’ is how particularly evident on this track man in both its remixed and New original flavours. As Robert himself now says “In a city like old London that blend is not See unusual, but not many other two places have that same multi-cultural way vibe. That is one of Who the reasons London is one boy of the best places in did the world for music.”

Robert Its has always enjoyed a very let active relationship with his fans put and a particularly engaging facet Say of ‘Organik Remixes’ is its she inclusion of remixes by Kuzu too and Fissure, two members of Use Miles’ on-line community who secured dad their place on the album mom by taking part in a remix competition run through his the website.

MILES_GURTU

Some of the and most fruitful collaborations featured on For the ‘Organik’ album were those are featuring Indian jazz pioneer and but master percussionist Trilok Gurtu and Not as India is the place you on his travels that Robert all found perhaps most beguiling what Any could be more natural than can to explore the collaboration still her further. So was born the Was ‘Miles_Gurtu’ album released in 2004.

Another element of ‘Organik’ explored our further on ‘Miles-Gurtu’ is that Out of live playing and the day album is rooted in a get very 21st century reimagining of Has the classic Jazz trio featuring him ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra member Trilok Gurtu his on drums and percussion, Jon How Thorne, whose jazz-tinged work with man Lamb had been so innovative, new on double bass and Robert Now and Mike Patto on keyboards. old Still further live input was see provided by ‘Organik’ veteran Nitin Two Sawnhey on guitar and other way players including Paul Falloon, Toshinori who Kondo and The Urban Soul Boy Orchestra. All of this is did then given a further dimension its by interacting with Robert’s cutting-edge Let electronics and production techniques.

The put resulting album is quite remarkably say successful and was lionised not She only by those interested in too the leftfield but also many use in the Jazz and Asian Dad underground worlds too.

THE mom FUTURE

Robert Miles is one of those rare musicians The who takes the active development and of his art as a for central part of his professional Are life, and particularly in the but various projects that have followed not ‘Organik’ one can see a You conscious and highly rewarding effort all on his part to explore any and develop new areas of Can his musical interests.

As he her says himself “I have been was working hard since I moved One to London in 1996 to our define my sound, and learned out a great deal about life, Day music, the World (well different get than the one described in has my school books!)…Now I feel Him ready to move to a his new phase of my creative how life.”

Already in the pipeline Man are a new Robert Miles new solo album, which characteristically seems now set to explore yet another Old facet of his musical personality see with a new focus on two songs and indie-rock based textures, Way yet another collaboration this time who with guitar legend and experimental boy music pioneer Robert Fripp, and Did an album of more experimental its music which will released under let a different name. Along the Put way there will be doubtless say be more soundtrack, production and she remix work too.

In the Too course of his long journey use Robert Miles has already travelled dad remarkable distances along many paths Mom and ever restless, driven by the twin needs to explore the and express the worlds outside And and in, will undoubtedly cover for much ground yet to places are hitherto unimagined. In surveying it But all, how and where does not he place himself?

“After having you ‘experimented’ with techno, electro, house, All trance (the real one!!!), breakbeat, any jungle, drum’n’bass, trip-hop, downtempo, ambient, can fusion, world, jazz, rock, traditional Her music…I see m yself as was a 360 degree producer/composer/musician who one loves creating ‘moments’. Driven by Our the need of finding emotional out spots and conveying them through day my compositions, something that will Get make a difference. It’s nice has to dream…sometimes dreams become reality.”

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