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Hans Zimmer and Robert Miles 

Yagyadeep Mahato

Hans Zimmer 

“Electronic music lends itself to an abstract way of storytelling, so it keeps evolving. There’s a whole movement truly driving music further and there is no other music innovating as much as film music.” 

— Hans Zimmer 

Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film score composer and music producer. Zimmer was born on September 12, 1957, in Frankfurt, Germany. His works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He had been very keenly interested in music from a very young age itself. He began playing piano at the age of three, and by the time he was 6 years old, following the tragic death of his father, he had determined that he wanted to be a music composer in the near future. Zimmer told CNN Worldbeat. “My dad died when I was six. That’s when I decided I was going to become really serious about music, because it was my refuge. It was my way of calming the demons in me or at the same time sometimes letting them roar, letting them rip, letting the monster out and seeing that it wasn’t so scary being able to look it in the eye.” 

At the age of 14 Hans Zimmer moved to England and after he graduated high school in England, he began writing jingles for commercials and playing in rock bands. In 1979 Zimmer was part of a band called Buggles which recorded the hit song “Video Killed The Radio Star”, which was the first song to feature on MTV. Despite the group’s success, Zimmer didn’t like being part of the rock band as he was not happy with writing only one style of music and called it “boring”. 

Zimmer soon started working on multiple contracts for different movies in a gradual climb up the ranks, soon enough reaching the top and composing scores for blockbuster movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Da Vinci Code, Sherlock Holmes, batman, The Simpsons Movie, and a lot more. Zimmer’s music style varies largely as he composes according to the mood, theme, genre, and emotions of a large variety of movies, each differing.  

One of Hans Zimmer’s most well-known works is the soundtrack for Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes” released in 2009, featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. The soundtrack itself can be seen as one of the most memorable aspects of the movie. Zimmer described the score to Ritchie as the sound of The Pogues, an Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band, joining a Romanian orchestra. Hans Zimmer had used a very interesting and unconventional variety of instruments consisting of a banjo, cimbalom, squeaky violins, a "broken pub piano" and other unconventional instruments such as the Experibass. “Discombobulate” is the opening track of the soundtrack and arguably the most important as it plays the role of the theme song of the movie Sherlock Holmes. As mentioned before, Zimmer usually likes to incorporate the characters culture and personalities in his works, and he has done so through discombobulate by created a gypsy-like tune which emphasises the eccentric, mysterious and quirky attributes of Sherlock Holmes.  

Robert Miles

Robert Miles was Italian record producer, composer, musician, and DJ. He was born in Switzerland, on 3rd November 1969. His initial birth name was Roberto Concina, but was later professionally known by his stage names, Robert Milani and more famously, Robert Miles. 

Robert Miles had also discovered his love for a music since a very young age, initially via the family piano. In his youth itself Miles had become proficient in playing the piano and from the age of 13 Miles began DJ'ing at local house parties for clients. Robert Miles initially wanted to study electronic engineering but at the age of 17 he decided to leave behind that idea and focus on a career of music. He had started DJing professionally from a young age too, and slowly over the years he had began to build up a strong reputation under the name of Robert Milani. Then soon enough he adopted the name Robert “Miles” as symbolic of the musical journey awaiting him. 

During his time in working as a DJ, miles was taken over by a strong enthusiasm for experimental and electronic music. Some of his notable influences in this field were Kraftwerk, Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, Future Sound of London, and Stockhausen. These individuals/companies were very influential in inspiring him to work with electronic music.  

With raging enthusiasm and interest in experimental and electronic music, soon enough Robert Miles assembled his own first ever studio. His first studio was a very basic studio consisting of a sampler, a mixer, keyboards, and a 32-track digital board. He began his electronic music career on a strong foot, accepting a production deal with the Italian label Metromaxx.  

Soon enough Robert Miles started composing and releasing multiple notable albums and singles. Robert Miles works were known and appreciated amongst a smaller yet appreciating audience at that time, until 1994 when he released hit single “Children” which would go on to be his most successful work.  

"Children" was inspired by a collection of photos taken by Miles' father while stationed in war-torn Yugoslavia for a humanitarian mission. These pictures were of child-victims of this war and following these pictures he became increasingly saddened and concerned by this issue. At the same time Miles was equally disturbed by the growing number of deaths plaguing the Italian rave community through car crashes. Miles wanted to work towards helping this issue so he wrote children, a song to end the DJ nights with something beautiful and soothing so the clubbers can return home with a peace of mind and avoid accidents. Initially written and released in 1994, Mile’s “Children” started growing amongst clubs and discos and soon in 1996, following its re-release with platypus records, Children became a worldwide blockbuster for Robert Miles. The single topped charts in Germany, France, Holland, and Belgium on its way to becoming the biggest European single of 1996, occupying the top spot in Euro top 100 for 13 weeks! “Children” not only helped Miles in gaining popularity amongst a much larger audience and to earn vast amounts of money, but it was also life-changing for him personally. It helped him gain confidence and reassurance about his work and more importantly he believes that with this single he had “found himself” as a composer, following initial stumbles in his earlier career.  

In 2017 Robert Miles had sadly passed away following a short battle with cancer at the age of 47. Overall, he has produced large amounts of wonderful singles and albums making him one of the most prolific electronic music composers and is definitely a very big inspiration and influence for upcoming electronic and experimental composers.  

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