# Robert Miles
**Robert Miles** was the stage name of **Roberto Concina**, a Swiss-born Italian producer, composer, and DJ who created "Children" (1994/1995), one of the defining tracks of 1990s electronic dance music and a founding work of dream trance, a style built on dream-like piano melodies over a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum.[1](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html) The single became the biggest-selling European single of 1996 and drove his debut album *Dreamland*, reported to have sold 13 million copies.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-miles-mn0000006232) • [3](https://www.stuartbuchanan.com/archives/1997/11/27/interview-robert-miles-married-with-children/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Birth | Born Roberto Concina in Fleurier, Switzerland; sources give 1969[1](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html) or 1970[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) |
| Signature track | "Children", composed in one night in 1994, sold to the Milan label DBX and first issued on the four-song EP *Soundtracks* in January 1995[3](https://www.stuartbuchanan.com/archives/1997/11/27/interview-robert-miles-married-with-children/) • [4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) |
| Chart performance | Topped charts in more than 12 European countries; peaked at #23 on the US pop chart and #1 on Billboard's dance chart in 1996[5](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube) • [4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) |
| Sales | Over 5 million copies of the single worldwide, produced for roughly 200 Swiss francs; 3 million sold by mid-1996[5](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube) • [4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) |
| Albums | *Dreamland* (1996), *23am* (1997), *Organik* (2001), *Miles_Gurtu* (2004), *Th1rt3en* (2011)[6](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1997/Music-Week-1997-11-01.pdf) • [1](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html) |
| Death | Died of metastatic cancer in Ibiza on 9 May 2017, aged 47[5](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube) |
## Early life and DJ years
Miles spent his first ten years in Fleurier, a village of a little over 3,000 people in Switzerland's Val-de-Travers, where his parents were among the first Italian immigrants; in 1979 the Concina family moved to Fagagna, a small town in northern Italy roughly 90 miles from Venice.[5](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube) • [4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) A soul music fan, he began piano lessons as a teenager and started DJing at friends' parties at age 13.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-miles-mn0000006232)
By the late 1980s he was a regular in Venice-area clubs playing hardcore trance under the name **Robert Milani**, and he had earlier run dance pirate radio stations in northern Italy.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-miles-mn0000006232) • [7](https://mixmag.net/feature/total-pleasure-uplifting-trance-lead-robert-miles-to-become-a-true-pioneer) In 1994, using a home studio assembled with a loan from his parents, he began producing records for the Italian progressive house and trance label Metrotraxx.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/)
## "Children" and dream trance
"Children" began, in Miles's words, as an "overnight doodle". He said it was written after his father showed him pictures of child victims of the war in [Yugoslavia](https://www.edgepedia.org/yugoslavia) in 1994.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) • [8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) Billboard described its melody as "drifting in with a cyclical piano phrase reminiscent of French composer Eric Satie's 'Gymnopadaes' theme, shadowed by an acoustic guitar riff before exploding into a solid 4/4 dance beat", with echoes of Vangelis and [Giorgio Moroder](https://www.edgepedia.org/giorgio-moroder)'s theme from *Midnight Express*.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/)
The track's deliberately sedate tempo had a stated social purpose. Miles chose the slower pace to help lower the number of rave-related road accidents in Italy, then being blamed on drugs and the machine-gun pace of techno music; the phenomenon was known in Italy as the *strage di sabato sera* (Saturday night massacre), in which teenagers exhausted by clubbing, alcohol, and drugs died in high-speed road accidents on weekend nights.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/robert-miles-dreamland-deconstruction-74321-39126-2-review-1338036.html) • [4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) He described the track as a "reaction against the hard-edged, high-energy hubris of the techno beat, replacing it with a more laid-back and melodic sound that has a universal appeal".[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/)
**From flop to phenomenon.** Sold to DBX, the label of producer and DJ Joe T. Vanelli, the track first appeared in January 1995 on the EP *Soundtracks* and sold at most 3,000 copies.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) The turn came when Vanelli played the Miami club Kimbo and the head of the UK trance label Platipus heard it and licensed it; Platipus then passed it to [Deconstruction](https://www.edgepedia.org/deconstruction), a house imprint whose A&R man was Mike Pickering of M People.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) By May 1996 it had topped the German chart for six weeks and led charts in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and Denmark, gone top five in every European country with a singles chart, and spent six weeks at number one on the Music & Media Eurochart Hot 100.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/)
Reported sales figures differ: over 5 million copies worldwide at a production cost of barely 200 francs, according to *Le Temps*;[5](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube) 4.5 million worldwide according to *Music Week*, a figure it counted alongside sales of the "One and One" single and the *Dreamland* album plus remixes;[6](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1997/Music-Week-1997-11-01.pdf) and 3 million worldwide by mid-1996, as [Billboard](https://www.edgepedia.org/billboard-magazine) reported.[4](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/) The track earned Miles a Brit Award and a World Music Award for Best Selling Male Newcomer.[10](https://gazettereview.com/2017/02/happened-robert-miles-news-updates/)
The track's style gave a name to a genre. Miles himself called his variant "Dreamhouse", while later writers classify it as dream trance, characterized by dream-like piano melodies over a steady four-on-the-floor bass drum; it also spawned dream house and melodic trance as named offshoots.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/robert-miles-dreamland-deconstruction-74321-39126-2-review-1338036.html) • [8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) "Children" remains a fixture of the classic-trance canon alongside tracks such as [Energy 52](https://www.edgepedia.org/energy-52)'s "Café Del Mar" and [Paul van Dyk](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-van-dyk)'s "For An Angel".[11](https://www.classictrance.com/anthems)
## Albums
**Dreamland (1996).** Miles's debut album, released on Deconstruction, opens with thunder and rain and moves through ordered, melodic dance pieces built on simple piano progressions; critics noted its distance from Kraftwerk's techno template and its epic but soothing character.[9](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/robert-miles-dreamland-deconstruction-74321-39126-2-review-1338036.html) The album went multi-platinum[12](https://www.scmp.com/article/225350/miles-ahead-pack) and, by Miles's own account in a 1997 interview, had sold 13 million copies.[3](https://www.stuartbuchanan.com/archives/1997/11/27/interview-robert-miles-married-with-children/) Fiorella Quinn supplied an uncredited vocal on the track "Fable".[13](https://trance-nexus.com/blog/iconic-trance-vocalists-voices-behind-anthems) A remix companion, *Dreamland II*, followed.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-miles-mn0000006232)
**23am (1997).** The follow-up arrived with the single "Freedom" on November 10, 1997, and the album a fortnight later.[6](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1997/Music-Week-1997-11-01.pdf) It was recorded in Paris with four vocal songs originally written in Italian and later translated into English.[10](https://gazettereview.com/2017/02/happened-robert-miles-news-updates/) Miles described it as a reflection of trying to express himself while dealing with the "major label" artist-machine attitude; its blend of ambient, electro, breakbeat, and drum and bass confused critics and disappointed part of the public.[8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) • [12](https://www.scmp.com/article/225350/miles-ahead-pack)
**Independence: Organik, Miles_Gurtu, Th1rt3en.** From *Organik* (2001) onward Miles released music on his own label, Salt Records, with publishing through Hardmonic Music, both operating from London since 2000.[1](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html) • [8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) *Organik*, conceptualized while traveling in India, used a full orchestra and drew on Tibetan mantras and Zen meditation; the double-disc *Organik Remixes* followed in 2003.[8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) • [2](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-miles-mn0000006232) In 2004 he recorded the collaborative album *Miles_Gurtu* with the Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu, for which he programmed chord progressions and ambient beds and let the musicians improvise.[1](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html) • [8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) *Th1rt3en* (2011), his first release in seven years and effectively his last studio album, featured Robert Fripp of King Crimson, Mike Patton, and John Thorne.[1](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html)
Later work moved toward progressive rock and jazz, with influences from [Pink Floyd](https://www.edgepedia.org/pink-floyd) to [Miles Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/miles-davis).[8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) In 2012 he founded the OpenLab internet radio station from his home, returning to his early-1990s pirate-radio roots while adding cultural and technological discussion to the music.[7](https://mixmag.net/feature/total-pleasure-uplifting-trance-lead-robert-miles-to-become-a-true-pioneer)
## Reception and influence
"Children" is consistently placed among the tracks that carried trance from club subculture into mainstream European pop in the mid-1990s; Mixmag listed it among the best mid-90s trance tracks and credited Miles with a "striking rebuttal" to the idea that trance was cheesy and synthetic.[14](https://mixmag.net/feature/the-15-best-mid-90s-trance-tracks) In streaming-era rankings he remains among the most-listened trance artists: a 2026 DJ Index put him fifth among trance acts with about 6.1 million monthly Spotify listeners.[15](https://dj-index.com/scenes/trance)
Despite the scale of the success, Miles described himself as an underground producer and said he would have been happy to disappear and return to a life of anonymity; he regarded "Children" copycats with growing disdain and saw himself as having made a pioneering mark in dance music rather than leading a movement.[8](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/) • [3](https://www.stuartbuchanan.com/archives/1997/11/27/interview-robert-miles-married-with-children/) He died in Ibiza on 9 May 2017 of metastatic cancer at the age of 47.[5](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube)
## References
1. [Piero Scaruffi, page on Robert Miles](https://www.scaruffi.com/vol6/miles_it.html)
2. [Robert Miles — Biography, Discography, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-miles-mn0000006232)
3. [Stuart Buchanan (1997), Interview: Robert Miles – Married With Children](https://www.stuartbuchanan.com/archives/1997/11/27/interview-robert-miles-married-with-children/)
4. [Michaelangelo Matos (2017), Robert Miles "Children", From the Crate, Insomniac](https://www.insomniac.com/music/from-the-crate-robert-miles-children/)
5. [Robert Miles, le DJ qui voulait échapper à son tube, Le Temps (27 May 2017)](https://www.letemps.ch/culture/musiques/robert-miles-dj-voulait-echapper-tube)
6. [Music Week (1 November 1997), Robert Miles: Dance Music's Shyest Star Takes Another Leap Forward](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1997/Music-Week-1997-11-01.pdf)
7. [Mixmag, Total pleasure: Uplifting trance led Robert Miles to become a true pioneer](https://mixmag.net/feature/total-pleasure-uplifting-trance-lead-robert-miles-to-become-a-true-pioneer)
8. [Tobias Fischer, Interview with Robert Miles, tokafi / 15 Questions](https://www.tokafi.com/15questions/interview-robert-miles/)
9. [The Independent (21 June 1996), Robert Miles: Dreamland review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/robert-miles-dreamland-deconstruction-74321-39126-2-review-1338036.html)
10. [Gazette Review, What Happened to Robert Miles](https://gazettereview.com/2017/02/happened-robert-miles-news-updates/)
11. [The Greatest Classic Trance Anthems, Canonical Archive](https://www.classictrance.com/anthems)
12. [South China Morning Post, Miles ahead of the pack](https://www.scmp.com/article/225350/miles-ahead-pack)
13. [Trance Nexus, Iconic Trance Vocalists](https://trance-nexus.com/blog/iconic-trance-vocalists-voices-behind-anthems)
14. [Mixmag, The 15 best mid-90s trance tracks](https://mixmag.net/feature/the-15-best-mid-90s-trance-tracks)
15. [DJ Index, Best Trance DJs in the World (2026)](https://dj-index.com/scenes/trance)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Music scenes › Transnational genre scenes › Electronic dance music (EDM) and rave culture › Artists, groups, and people: Electronic dance music (EDM) and rave culture › Trance and psytrance artists*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license