ROBERT MILES Biographie

The story of Robert Miles, born Roberto Concina, is that of three journeys,
geographical, spiritual and above all musical. Though he's circled the
globe many times and picked up more than a few glittering prizes along the
way, it's music and Robert's sheer love of it that has propelled him from a
small town in the Swiss mountains to success in the world's music capitals
and beyond. Moreover this same love of music burns as fiercely in him still
as he prepares to undertake the next phase of his remarkable voyage.

EARLY DAYS

Robert Miles' journey began in 1969 in the Swiss town of Fleurier from
where the family moved to Italy when he was still a young boy. It was here
in the small rural town of Fagagna, some 100km from Venice that the young
Robert first discovered his love for music via the family piano and a pair
of turntables.

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

Over the next few years he built his reputation as a live and radio DJ and
increasingly taken over by an enthusiasm for experimental and electronic
music treated his home region to the sounds of some of his formative
influences;Kraftwerk, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, Future Sound
of London, even Stockhausen, several of whom he's collaborated with over
the years and with whom one can see him having an ever increasing kinship.

DREAMLAND

The Robert Miles story for the world at large begins of course with the
composition of 'Children' in 1994, written in a 4m x 4m bunker studio he
had personally soundproofed and assembled in a converted garage not far
from the family home.'Children' was Robert's immediate and typically honest
emotional response to pictures of the child victims of war with which his
father had just returned from a humanitarian mission to the ex-Yugoslavia.

So moved was Robert by the plight of these innocents, caught up in so much
devastation and atrocity, that he felt compelled to begin work on the track
the very next morning as he returned from playing his DJ set in the early
hours.

'Children' was to be a life-changing track for Robert in many ways, most of
all perhaps in the confidence and reassurance that after much hard work and
a number of initial stumbles he had for the first time 'found' himself as a
composer, As he was to discover the first time he aired the track in public
at his next DJ set;

"I was anxious to see how people would take to this piece. The following
Sunday morning I opened my DJ set with 'Children', feeling both scared and
excited... the DJ just before me had ended with a very heavy piece. To
break the existing mood with a melodic tune and a long intro could have
simply cleared the floor. The people in front of me stopped in their
tracks, their eyes fixed to the console almost in annoyance. I felt my
blood run cold and I remember lowering my eyes in fear. The record reached
its soaring climax. From the floor came a thunderous noise... I lifted my
gaze and saw a sea of hands reaching up high and a smile stamped on every
face. A girl approached me in tears. "What music is this?" she asked me. I
don't think I shall ever forget that moment, when I realized that my
feelings had been conveyed through my music. My dream turned into reality."

From there the track built steadily from the underground, championed by DJs
and club audiences one by one around the world. Typically when the track
first arrived as a single in the UK, Radio 1 refused to play it as it was
an instrumental and moreover a 'dance' instrumental at that, rather an
ironic turn of events for a ex-radio DJ. Only in 1996 when pressure from
the UK club scene became overwhelming did 'Children' finally make the
playlist and explode into the national consciousness and beyond, becoming a
global phenomenon in the truest sense. 'Children' reached #1 in 18
countries, selling a staggering 5 million copies worldwide. In defining a
genre it opened the door for much of the 'chill-out' and down-tempo music
that followed in its wake.

Not surprisingly Robert had by this time been hungrily snapped up by a
major label, BMG's 'Deconstruction' and temporarily escaping the media
frenzy that had engulfed him returned to his bunker in Italy to finish the
rest of what would become his first album 'Dreamland'. On release
'Dreamland', which also includes the singles 'One and One' and 'Fable',
was perhaps even more successful than 'Children' itself, racking up a
mighty 16 platinum and 12 gold discs in 21 countries around the world.

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

23AM

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

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

Still inexperienced in the ways of the music business and feeling himself
increasingly alienated from the people around him, Miles not only withdrew
completely from the interview circuit (during the previous year he had been
doing up to 15-20 interviews a day) but also asked that instead of new
photographs on the album cover and elsewhere he be represented by a black
silhouette of himself to represent what he felt was his place in the pop-
star system, "to suggest the insignificance of 'image' - music above
everything else". One can only imagine the mixture of incredulity and
horror with which this news was greeted in boardrooms around the world.

Now resident in London and distanced as far as he was able from the
trappings of the fame-game, Miles meanwhile set to work on the music for
'23AM';

"I wanted this to be a conceptual album; an album which would reflect the
experiences and understanding gathered on my travels. 11 pieces describing
the life cycle of a normal human being, such as I wanted to be - starting
from birth, through the vicissitudes of everyday life, to maturity and
finally to death. The scores were the translation into music of my state of
mind at that moment: the desire to hold on to a normal life, to run away
from those who wanted to overburden me; the need to be free again to give
vent to my feelings."

Eventually released in November 1997, '23AM' (containing the resolutely
titled single 'Freedom') was enthusiastically greeted by many of Robert's
early fans and indeed is still cited by many as the preferred album of the
first two. For a variety of reasons however it failed to repeat the
sensational commercial performance of its predecessor. The artist's refusal
to take part in any TV or radio interviews undoubtedly contributed and a
spectacularly mishandled record company marketing campaign did the rest.

The increasingly strained relationship between Miles and his record company
and then-management had now been pushed beyond breaking point, with the
inevitable acrimonious consequences.

Locked in a contract in which both record company and management had
envisaged Robert Miles functioning as a kind of musical slot-machine,
producing lucrative pay-outs of 'Dreamland' clones for the foreseeable
future regardless of his own artistic needs, and seemingly unwilling to
perform on any other terms, Robert was for a while at a loss to do next.

The major label career which less than three years earlier had seemed so
promising was not only in tatters but as things stood seemed set to stop
him releasing any of the music he actually wanted to write for the
foreseeable future, thus consigning not only his career but his own musical
voice to oblivion. Was this all he had forward to after so many years
passionately learning his craft?

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

ORGANIK

The years in which Robert and been professionally silenced were far from
dormant however as in the meantime he had been circumnavigating the globe
as a live DJ. Visiting cultures and peoples in all points of compass (quite
literally, from Lappland to South Africa and Brazil to Japan, it's easier
to list the countries he didn't visit than those he did) and ever receptive
along the way he had assembled a burgeoning mass of influences and
experiences that were ready to find their way into his music. Personally
recharged and artistically reinvigorated he relocated to Ibiza in early
2000 to begin work on what would become his third album 'Organik' in a
secluded finca kilometres from the nearest town.

The record that emerged the following year was a deeply personal and for
Robert a cleansingly contemporary one. Darker, more leftfield and drawing
on a far wider palette than anything which might have been envisaged at the
close of '23AM', 'Organik' draws on the deepest exploration of his musical
self and earliest influences thus far as well as reflecting to a certain
extent the traumatic period from which he was finally emerging (as titles
such as 'Separation' and 'Release Me' would suggest).

All of this is further synthesised with the experiences of his recent
travels. As Robert said at the time "I've seen and experienced a lot of
different cultures and that has had an effect. It's the interaction between
European electronic music and other, more traditional sounds that
fascinates me now."

Though undeniably introspective in tone, 'Organik' is in many ways a very
outward looking album too; the influences from Robert's travels abound
(India being particularly apparent) and there is often an air of joyful
exuberance in the trying out of new musical directions and colours. For the
first time too Robert worked with a host of instrumental collaborators,
some of whom like Bill Laswell were early influences, others such as Nitin
Sawhney and Trilok Gurtu friends and more recent discoveries. All were
undeniably what are termed 'musicians' musicians' and the inspiring quality
of their contributions reflects this, providing a fascinating counterpoint
to the electronic textures Robert weaves around them.

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

FILM SOUNDTRACKS

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

Nor was this appreciation at all one-sided. Robert has a long-standing love
affair with the screen; "I have worked on music for adverts, but since the
age of 14, when I became interested in music, it has been my dream to
compose and produce a film score". Since the release of 'Organik' Miles has
increasingly has been dividing his time between London and Los Angeles
where in typically pragmatic style he's set himself to the task of
developing a soundtrack career, taking ever-increasing amounts of scoring
work as he builds up his profile in one of the toughest competitive
environments on earth.

ORGANIK REMIXES

Further developing the collaborative element that had been such a
liberating part of 'Organik', 2002 saw the release of a remix album,
suitably titled 'Organik Remixes' which assembled reinterpretations of many
of the original album tracks by a choice selection of leftfield and dance
orientated artists including Future Sound Of London, 2nd Gen, Si Begg Alex
Kid, Da Lata and KV5.

Future Sound Of London's pleasingly Beatle-esque reworking of 'Paths'
further underscored the visual potential of Miles' music in being used to
spearhead Jaguar's Winter 2004/5 TV ad campaign in the UK, while Robert's
'S:alted Remix' was used by Gucci for the launch of their new website in
the USA. The mixing of cultures and musical styles that formed such a key
part of 'Organik' is particularly evident on this track in both its remixed
and original flavours. As Robert himself says "In a city like London that
blend is not unusual, but not many other places have that same multi-
cultural vibe. That is one of the reasons London is one of the best places
in the world for music."

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

MILES_GURTU

Some of the most fruitful collaborations featured on the 'Organik' album
were those featuring Indian jazz pioneer and master percussionist Trilok
Gurtu and as India is the place on his travels that Robert found perhaps
most beguiling what could be more natural than to explore the collaboration
still further. So was born the 'Miles_Gurtu' album released in 2004.

Another element of 'Organik' explored further on 'Miles-Gurtu' is that of
live playing and the album is rooted in a very 21st century reimagining of
the classic Jazz trio featuring ex-Mahavishnu Orchestra member Trilok Gurtu
on drums and percussion, Jon Thorne, whose jazz-tinged work with Lamb had
been so innovative, on double bass and Robert and Mike Patto on keyboards.

Still further live input was provided by 'Organik' veteran Nitin Sawnhey on
guitar and other players including Paul Falloon, Toshinori Kondo and The
Urban Soul Orchestra. All of this is then given a further dimension by
interacting with Robert's cutting-edge electronics and production
techniques.

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

THE FUTURE

Robert Miles is one of those rare musicians who takes the active
development of his art as a central part of his professional life, and
particularly in the various projects that have followed 'Organik' one can
see a conscious and highly rewarding effort on his part to explore and
develop new areas of his musical interests.

As he says himself "I have been working hard since I moved to London in
1996 to define my sound, and learned a great deal about life, music, the
World (well different than the one described in my school books!)...Now I
feel ready to move to a new phase of my creative life."

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

In the course of his long journey Robert Miles has already travelled
remarkable distances along many paths and ever restless, driven by the twin
needs to explore and express the worlds outside and in, will undoubtedly
cover much ground yet to places hitherto unimagined. In surveying it all,
how and where does he place himself?

"After having 'experimented' with techno, electro, house, trance (the real
one!!!), breakbeat, jungle, drum'n'bass, trip-hop, downtempo, ambient,
fusion, world, jazz, rock, traditional music...I see myself as a 360 degree
producer/composer/musician who loves creating 'moments'. Driven by the need
of finding emotional spots and conveying them through my compositions,
something that will make a difference. It's nice to dream...sometimes
dreams become reality."