With the worldwide release of the second album by Robert Miles, the enigmatically titled 23am, and its first new single release, "Freedom," the time is right to reflect back on the origins of his debut single, the instrumental anthem entitled simply 'Children." Miles burst upon the European club scene in 1996, but the intensity of his discovery threatened to obscure the original concept behind his composition. "Children" was a true pop phenomenon, capturing the number one spot "in every European country that has a singles chart" (as noted in Billboard), becoming one of the biggest-selling dance singles in history on the continent.

When "Children" was issued in the U.S. in late-spring, Billboard immediately crowned it 'a masterful jam destined to become a classic." It went on to reach number 21 on the chart, where it stayed for 20 weeks and provided the pringboard for Dreamiand, the first album by Miles, which went on to sell 13 million copies worldwide. Yet even in America, audiences were unaware of the social consciousness factor which spurred Miles to create "Children" in the first place.

"He did it to save lives," the cover story in Dance Authority Magazine declared flatly. In his native Italy, where Robert Miles was both a DJ and a clubber, the deaths in car crashes of young people returning home from clubs had reached epidemic proportions. The potent combination of drink, drugs, and dancing to "mad, hard, fast techno," as Miles told the magazine, 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.

It became so overwhelming that 20,000 mothers banded together into something called the "Mamma Anti-Rock' protest movement. They marched in Rome and Venice to have the clubs shut down, and curfews established, the aftershock of which could have been devastating from any number of directions. 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.

If Robert Miles was revealed as an artist of conscience with "Children," then how much more does his conscience present itself to us on 23am? In the year that he has traversed the globe in support of Dreamiand, he has been exposed to a world of new realities, "from the fascinating and mysterious Far East to the torrid heat of Florida, from the unscathed forests of Lapland to the white sands of South Africa and Brazil," as he personally annotates his new album.

At the same time, in the course of his travels Miles has seen a planet "devastated by man. A world where natural paradises have been turned into barren wastelands of cement, where entire forests have disappeared, where pure waters have been turned into chemical containers. So, from the world of dreams, I have been thrown into the world of realities." For Miles, the essence of his new album could be nothing less than confronting this devastation, man's "desperate search for power, fame and possession."

The frustration that Miles feels is no different than that experienced by millions of others looking for the same answers: "Some seek refuge in new religions," he writes, "some in meditation, others do not know where to go and take their own lives instead." Inevitably, he realizes, solutions lie within the human soul, but require a giant leap away from the destructiveness of modern society as we approach the millennium. "Freedom," he concludes, once it is lost, "cannot be reconquered cheaply, but however high, it's a price worth paying."

Born in Switzerland, raised in Italy, conversant in English and Italian, Robert Miles is a composer and producer, a pianist-turned-club DJ and now a recording artist of truly international scope. It has been nearly three years since the initial idea for "Children" first came to him, and he began to rearrange various concepts he'd been playing with into a new sound that would be the antithesis to the harder, more caustic beats being played in the Italian clubs. Almost immediately, DJs responded by slowing down the musical tempos, tempering those relentless techno beats with more melodious interludes that provided a dramatic, even classical counterpoint.

"I made 'Children' in the interests of calming people down," he told DMA. "The melodies in the song really bring out the emotions, and not ones that are going to entice you to leave the club and drive 120 miles an hour after you hear them." Miles originally pressed up 1,000 copies of the 12-inch record back in the summer of 1994 (sans the piano riff that later made the song so instantly recognizable) and sold them all. Six months later (January 1995) the familiar "Dream' version was issued, re-mixed on a four-track EP titled Soundtracks on the Italian DBX label.

Ironically, the song was not a hit in Italy at first; it actually took until Christmas before it "broke" in England and then went on to top the charts in Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and so on. It sold more than 2 million copies across the Continent, and spent six weeks at number one on the Music & Media Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart.

"Children" took the U.S. by storm, vaulting to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance chart while it headed straight to Top 20 pop as well. The distinctively grainy black-and-white video (directed by Matt Amos) was nominated as "Best Dance Clip" and "Best New Artist Clip" at the 1996 Billboard Music Video Awards. At England's prestigious BRIT awards, Robert Miles was nominated as "Best International Male" and "Best International Newcomer."

Meanwhile, the Dreamland album was a concoction of eleven tracks that took the listener on a highly exhilarating and emotional journey, including "Children" (in both Dream version and Original version); the second single "One and One," a full-speed-ahead pop workout written by Billy Steinberg (who penn, and the Pretenders) and featuring the breathy diva musings of Maria Nayler; and the third single "Fable" (also in two versions), featuring the talented Fiorella Quinn on vocals, which also went to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance chart. Billboard described Dreamland as "an intelligent album rich with lush, often orchestral keyboards and delicate and quickly memorable hooks."

23am finds Robert Miles embarking on another mesmerizing journey that's free, spacious and gently psychedelic. Kathy Sledge (of Sister Sledge) provides the vocals on "Freedom" and "Enjoy," while French chanteuse Nancy Danino is heard on "Everyday Life" and "Full Moon." The full gamut of trance, breakbeat, and drum 'n bass are all here, minus the "hard-edged, high energy hubris" which Robert Miles feels is characteristic of the techno beat. In the final analysis, it's down to the mix, and that's where, once again, Robert Miles gives us our money's worth.