Roberto Concina — Robert Miles — was a young Italian DJ when he wrote "Children" in the mid-nineties, and the piece carries two origin stories, both true. His father had returned from a humanitarian mission with photographs of children affected by the war in the Balkans, which gave the melody its ache. And Miles had watched Italy's weekend rave culture produce a grim toll of driving deaths, so he crafted a closing record — a "dream house" comedown — deliberately designed to calm crowds before they got behind the wheel. Music engineered, quite literally, to bring ravers safely home.
Released on the small Italian DBX label in 1995 and picked up internationally by Deconstruction, "Children" became one of the most successful instrumentals ever recorded: number one in a dozen-plus countries, millions of copies sold, and a Brit Award for Miles as best international breakthrough act in 1997. That piano line — sparse, minor-key, infinitely patient over its rolling bassline — has never left the collective memory of European dancefloors.
Miles passed away in 2017, and the tributes that followed made the record's status plain: "Children" is the bridge by which millions of people who never set foot in a club came to understand what this music could feel like. Trance's most humane record.