Roger Shah

Roger Shah
Birth name	Roger-Pierre Shah
Also known as	Sunlounger, Purple Mood, Savannah, Black Pearl, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island, Global Experience
Born	29 November 1972 (1972-11-29) (age 38) Esslingen am Neckar, Germany
Genres	Balearic Trance Ambient Chillout Electronica
Occupations	DJ, Producer, Radio show host/DJ of Magic Island
Instruments	Synthesizer, Equalizer, etc.
Years active	1996 - present
Labels	Armada, Black Hole, Anjunabeats, Magic Island
Associated acts	Sunlounger, Global Experience, Mellomania, North Dakota
Website	http://www.rogershah.net/ Roger Shah@Facebook Roger Shah@Myspace

Roger Shah (aka Dj Shah, Sunlounger) is a German electronic music composer and producer.^[1]

Biography

Early History: Born in Esslingen in southern Germany to a German mother and a Pakistani father. His brother is Pedro del Mar, also a Trance DJ, hosts a bi-weekly vocal trance show called Mellomania. Roger first began to hit his production stride in his native country in 1999 putting out the tracks ‘Claps’, ‘The Mission’ & ‘Tides of Time’. In 2003 his ‘High’ release was signed by Virgin Records imprint Nebula. This marked his first non-domestic release and over the course of the next 5 years he inked productions to a range of trance labels - ones that came to include Anjunabeats, VANDIT & Black Hole.

The Armin Connection: In 2007 Armin van Buuren named Shah’s ‘Who Will Find Me’ release as his favourite track of 2007. Having heard the demo of its follow-up, Van Buuren saw crossover potential in the track and made contact in early 2008 to ask if Shah would like to collaborate on it. The result was the Chris Jones song ‘Going Wrong’… A national top 5 smash in The Netherlands, the track went on to become one of the biggest selling trance singles of the year. From there Magic Island Records – Shah’s primary label moved from his own stable to that of one of Armin’s industry-leading Armada Music.

Magic Island Records: An imprint for both Roger’s own material and that of likeminded producers, Magic Island releases have quickly become fixtures in the CDJs of the world’s biggest spinners. Notable up and coming names like Ralph Fritsch, DJ Cosmo, Kim Svard and Walsh & McAuley have all had releases on the label.

‘Songbook’: The M.I. deal’s quickest produce of the Magic Island/Armada deal was Roger’s first artist album, ‘Songbook’. Strongly received by both press and fans alike, it was praised for its innovative dual club mix and acoustic version approach. Singles taken from it like ‘Don’t Wake Me Up’ and the aforementioned ‘Going Wrong’ & ‘Who Will Find Me’ (a Top 20 ASOT Tune of the Year in ‘08) proved to be particularly popular.

Live & DJ Performances: In late 2008 Shah took the decision to change his artist name. Dropping the ‘DJ’ prefix, he revised it to Roger Shah – a move that signalled a move away from straightforward DJ sets. His successive live-on-stage more concert themed ones have brought a percevible change to how trance music was presented to an audience. During live performance, Roger Shah frequently uses a wireless keyboard interface such as the M-Audio Oxygen 25 (25 key usb midi controller). Roger Shah has mentioned numerous times that will perform with his laptop instead of CD.

Pseudonyms & Side Projects: In addition to his own-name tracks, Roger has also produced under a matrix of other sun-tipped aliases. Notable among them are his ‘pka’ DJ Shah, High Noon at Salinas, Magic Island & Savannah. Shah is also one half of the Anjunabeats released act Purple Moods, Black Hole project Global Experience and ASOT’s Black Pearl, whose ’06 – ’09 spanning singles ‘Coral Sea’, ‘Java’, ‘Bounty Island’ and ‘Rise’ generated much additional interest in Shah’s solo productions.

Sunlounger: Sunlounger is without doubt Roger’s best known nom de plume. It was under this handle that he released the ‘Another Day On The Terrace' long-player in 2008. It reached No.1 on Dutch iTunes’ ‘all-music-genres’ chart and spawned four singles: ‘In & Out’, ‘Aguas Blancas’, ‘Crawling’ & ‘White Sand’. The project become so celebrated that Roger expanded Sunlounger into a live act - a performance of which was featured on Armada’s ArminOnly DVD. It was this experience that he credited with his latter wholesale move into live Roger Shah performances. In 2009 Roger released the Sunlounger follow-up LP ‘Sunny Tales'. It's progeny singles included ‘Catwalk’, ‘Mediterranean Flower’, ‘Change Your Mind’ and the much-revered ‘Lost’ - voted as Tune of the Year for the 2008 A State of Trance radio show hosted by Armin van Buuren.

‘Magic Island: Music For Balearic People’ – The Compilations: Shah’s compilation series has so far seen three outings (2007, 2008 & 2010). Encapsulating everything Roger stands for musically, their intrinsically White Island trance sound has sound-tracked an uncountable number of clubbers holidays. Roger typically uses the compilations as first-listen holders for future singles & collaborations with Vol.2 including ones with Signum, Judge Jules & Amanda O’Riordan and Tenishia.

‘Magic Island: Music For Balearic People’ – The Radio Show: Broadcasting weekly, Magic Island – Music For Balearic People is a 2 hour radio show carried by the DI-fm station and is currently being syndicated to many other countries, most recently including Mexico and Jordan. Presented by Roger every Friday between 21.00 GMT (22:00 CET), it showcases him playing melodic trance through the first hour with the 2nd focusing on Balearic, chillout and Dream trance.

Remixes: Shah has reworked tracks for legendary vocalists like Sarah McLachlan and Nadia Ali. He’s also remixed tunes for a litany of trance-masters including Tiësto, Armin Van Buuren, Mark Norman, York, Cosmic Gate, Josh Gabriel, Johan Gielen, System F, The Thrillseekers, Solarstone, Three Drives, Matt Darey & Oceanlab. Most recently Roger has rewired Andain’s ‘Beautiful Things ‘10’ and Richard Durand’s ‘Always The Sun’.

Discography

DJ/Roger Shah Albums 2000 The Album 2008 Songbook 2011 Openminded Singles 1999 Claps 1999 Commandments 2000 Riddim 2001 Tides Of Time (feat. No Iron) 2002 High 2003 Sunday Morning 2004 Sunset Road (with York) 2006 Beautiful (Glimpse Of Heaven) (feat. Jan Johnston) 2007 Palmarosa 2007 Who Will Find Me (feat. Adrina Thorpe) 2008 Going Wrong (with Armin van Buuren feat. Chris Jones) 2008 Don't Wake Me Up (feat. Inger Hansen) 2008 Back To You (feat. Adrina Thorpe) 2009 You're So Cool (with Tenishia feat. Lorilee) 2009 To The Sky (with Chris Jones as Open Minded) 2009 I'm Not God (with Tenishia feat. Lorilee) 2009 Healesville Sanctuary (feat. Signum) 2010 Hold On (with Judge Jules feat. Amanda Angelic) 2010 Ancient World (with Signum) 2011 Morning Star (feat. Moya Brennan) Compilations 2005 The Ultimate Chillout Collection 2008 Sunlounger Sessions 2008 Magic Island: Music For Balearic People 2009 Magic Island: Music For Balearic People Vol. 2 2010 Magic Island: Music For Balearic People Vol. 3 2010 Sunlounger – The Downtempo Edition Remixes as Dj Shah 2008 'Nadia Ali' - Crash and Burn as Roger Shah 2008 'Sunlounger & Cap Feat. Stephanie Asscher' - Heart Of The Sun 2009 'Richard Durand' - Always The Sun 2009 'Roger Shah & Tenishia' - You're So Cool 2009 'Roger Shah & Tenishia' - I'm Not God 2009 'Roger Shah & Signum' - Healesville Sanctuary 2009 'Ira Losco' - Shoulders Of Giants 2009 'Samara' - Verano 2010 'Andain' - Beautiful Things 2010 'Roger Shah & Signum' - Ancient World Sunlounger Albums 2007 Another Day On The Terrace 2008 Sunny Tales 2010 The Beach Side of Life Singles 2006 White Sand 2007 Aguas Blancas 2007 In & Out 2008 Crawling 2008 Catwalk / Mediterranean Flower 2008 Lost (feat. Zara) 2009 Change Your Mind (feat. Kyler England) 2010 Found (feat. Zara) 2010 Breaking Waves (feat. Inger Hansen) Black Pearl Singles 2006 Bounty Island 2008 Coral Sea 2009 Java 2010 Rise 2010 Discovery Savannah Singles 2006 Savannah La Mar 2009 Body Lotion 2010 Darling Harbour Global Experience Singles 2005 Tennessee / Dakar 2006 Zanzibar / San Salvador 2007 Madras / Malaysia 2008 Koengen Remixes 2006 'Brian Laruso' - Song For The Ocean 2006 'Mark Norman Presents Celine' - Colour My Eyes 2006 'Tiesto Feat. Maxi Jazz' - Dance4Life 2006 'North Dakota' - Superstring 2.6 2007 'Shane 54' - 1000 Lullabies 2007 'Johan Gielen' - Revelations -Right From My Heart- 2008 'High Noon At Salinas' - Celebration 2008 'Charles McThorn Feat. Elles De Graaf' - Winds Will Turn 'Magic Island - Music for Balearic People' RadioShow Produced by Roger Shah, 'Magic Island - Music for Balearic People' is a weekly two-hour chill-out, balearic trance radioshow that airs on DI.FM and Beat 100.9. The show first aired on May 2, 2008. Trance and progressive music are played in the first hour of the radioshow and chill-out Balearic Trance music is played in the second hour. References ^ Openminded: Nuevo álbum de Roger Shah External links Roger Shah Official Website Roger Shah on Myspace Sunlounger on Myspace Magic Island Records on Myspace Roger Shah at the DJList.com Roger Shah's show - Magic Island - Music for Balearic People TranceSound interview, November 2010 Trance Hub interview: September, 2007 Persondata Name Shah, Dj Alternative names Short description Date of birth November 29, 1972 Place of birth Date of death Place of death