~this page is now completely mothballed. i have no time to update it... plus it no longer interests me. eventually i will delete this site entirely because I am working on new projects.
The history of "Symphonic Trance" , know as "Dream Music", ironically has its roots in Techno. Italy is one of the largest clubbing nation in Europe, if not the in the world; 4,000 clubs exist and over 4 million clubbers frequent them every week-end.
The deaths in car crashes of young people returning home from clubs had reached epidemic proportions. The potent combination of drink, drugs, and dancing "mad, hard, fast techno," then jumping into cars after-hours with adrenaline rushing, ignoring any road conditions, had led to as many as twenty and thirty deaths every week.
In one weekend, 23 people were reportedly killed in club-related accidents. The problem became so bad that a pressure group was formed. In an echo of the 1950s, when parents feared rock 'n' roll would destroy the world, the 40,000 strong "Mama Anti-Rock Movement" started up as a protest against the number of club-related accidents on the road. They marched in Rome and Venice, demanded that clubs, particularly those in Venice, that were renowned for playing the harder genres of music such as Techno close at the earlier time of 2:00am because statistics had shown that clubbing-related car deaths had increased enormously in recent years in this particular area.
Some of Venice's bigger name DJs reacted to the "Mama Anti-Rock Movement" by slowing down the musical tempos and introducing tempering repetitive, relentless beats with more melodious moments. The pioneers were DJs like Adriano Dodici, Gigi d'Agostino, Leonardo Rossi, DJ Gianni Parrinias, and Robert Miles.
Miles reacted as an artist-DJ would be expected to, in musical terms. He went to his home studio and fashioned a theme that slowed the pace, took the edge off the raving techno beat that sent the kids out into the night. "Children" was relaxing "dream music," observers observed. And it was an overnight sensation.
The inspiration for Children came from Miles' father who returned from a posting in war-torn Yugoslavia with harrowing stories and snapshots of the innocent youngsters suffering there. Another story suggested that he composed it after a teenager had a car-accident after he left the disco. Miles himself admits that both versions are real.
With his "Dream Music" he started a new trend that other artists (e.g. DJ Dado, Zhi-vago, and many others) are following. It does not bother Robert, in fact he is very happy that his music is well taken by people. In spite of his success he remains to be a modest guy.
