Schiller

• Genre: Electronica/Dance
• Hometown: Berlin
• Schiller Website

About

Schiller, the project of Grammy-nominated DJ/producer Christopher von Deylen, create soothing New Age dance music with a hint of trance and ambient elements. German electronic pioneer von Deylen named the group for the famous 18th-century German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller. In 1998, Schiller released the hugely popular "Glockenspiel," a straight-up trance song that featured the bell-like glockenspiel sampled over a bouncy dance beat. The international success of the song pushed them to create a full-length album, and the following year, they released Zeitgeist. The album featured more trance singles aimed directly at the club scene, but Schiller also began venturing into ambient, New Age and breakbeat genres on future albums like Voyage, Life and Prologue. Schiller's musical influences include Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre and Kraftwerk, and they count artists such as Sarah Brightman, Sinead O'Connor and Mike Oldfield as fans. In late 2008, Schiller were nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year for the chart-topping trance single "Tired of Being Alone."

- Jamie Sanchez