Robert Rich is doing his part to make December more fun. For any order over $20.00 (USD) from our Soundscape order form, they’ll include a copy of Percy Howard’s Meridiem “A Scattering Time” for Free. It’s an intense album, not for everyone, so they’ll only send a copy if you click the box on the form to request it.

Across three decades and over 30 albums, Robert Rich has helped define the genres of ambient music, dark-ambient, tribal and trance, yet his music remains hard to categorize. Part of his unique sound comes from using home-made acoustic and electronic instruments, microtonal harmonies, computer-based signal processing, chaotic systems and feedback networks. Rich began building his own analog synthesizers in 1976, when he was 13 years old, and later studied for a year at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

Also, Robert Rich has had many requests for “Perpetual” downloads from purchasers of the Blu-ray. During December they’ll include a free Download Card for FLAC or MP3 files from CD Baby, for anyone who orders the Blu-ray edition. (Or, if you ask Robert Rich directly, he can offer Blu-ray purchasers access to a DropBox folder with MP3 files.)

Robert Rich Discography

• Perpetual – A Somnium Continuum (2014)
• Premonitions 1980-1985 (2014)
• Meridiem – A Scattering Time (2014)
• Morphology (2014)
• Trances & Drones (Reissue, 2013)
• Sunyata & Inner Landscapes (Reissue, 2013)
• Nest (2012)
• Medicine Box (2011)
• Ylang (2010)
• Live Archive Series (2009)
• Zerkalo (with Faryus, 2008)
• React (with Ian Boddy, 2008)
• Eleven Questions (with Markus Reuter, 2007)
• Illumination (2007)
• Atlas Dei – DVD (2007)
• Music from Atlas Dei (2007)
• Electric Ladder (2006)
• Lithosphere (with Ian Boddy, 2005)
• Echo of Small Things (2005)
• Calling Down the Sky (Live, 2004)
• Open Window (2004)
• Temple of the Invisible (2003)
• Outpost (with Ian Boddy, 2002)
• Bestiary (2001)
• Somnium (7 hours, 2001)
• Humidity (Live, 2000)
• Pivot (with Amoeba, 2000)
• Inner Landscapes (1999)
• Below Zero (1998)
• Seven Veils (1998)
• Numena + Geometry (1997)
• Fissures (1997)
• Watchful (with Amoeba, 1997)
• A Troubled Resting Place (1996)
• Stalker (with Lustmord, 1995)
• Yearning (with Lisa Moskow, 1994)
• Propagation (1994)
• Eye Catching (with Amoeba, 1993)
• Soma (with Steve Roach, 1992)
• Gaudi (1991)
• Strata (with Steve Roach, 1990)
• Rainforest (1989)
• Numena (1987)
• Inner Landscapes (1985)

CD Baby 1¢ Shipping | DEC. 1-3, 2014

For three days, December 1-3 (2014) CD Baby is offering 1¢ shipping for orders anywhere in the world. That’s a great deal, especial for purchasers outside of the USA. Also, checkout Robert Rich’s Full Discography.

Across three decades and over 30 albums, Robert Rich has helped define the genres of ambient music, dark-ambient, tribal and trance, yet his music remains hard to categorize. Part of his unique sound comes from using home-made acoustic and electronic instruments, microtonal harmonies, computer-based signal processing, chaotic systems and feedback networks. Rich began building his own analog synthesizers in 1976, when he was 13 years old, and later studied for a year at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).

Robert Rich on CDBaby.com

• Perpetual – A Somnium Continuum (2014)
• Morphology (2014)
• Somnium (Full Version, 2013)
• Trances & Drones (Reissue, 2013)
• Sunyata & Inner Landscapes (Reissue, 2013)
• Nest (2012)
• Medicine Box (2011)
• Ylang (2010)
• Music from Atlas Dei (2007)
• Illumination (2007)
• Electric Ladder (2006)
• Echo of Small Things (2005)
• Calling Down the Sky (Live, 2004)
• Open Window (2004)
• Temple of the Invisible (2003)
• Bestiary (2001)
• Somnium (7 hours, 2001)
• Humidity (Live, 2000)
• Below Zero (1998)

Live Archive Series (2009)

• Mycosphere: Live on KFJC, May 31 2008
• Lumin: Live at Camerawork, March 6 2008
• Live at Cowell Theater, San Francisco, May 12 2002
• Alien Zoology: Live at Morrison Planetarium, San Francisco, December 9 2001
• Shamballa: Live in Costa Mesa CA, May 20 2000
• Due Acque: Live in Umbria Italy, April 1 2000
• Ici et Maintenant: Live in Paris, May 12 1989

12 different artists were invited to use the sounds from Matt’s 4 drum machine albums as building blocks for new songs.

1. Sirens 01:05
2. The Fnord AM Music (by Toaster) 05:30
3. Reliving Things (by Tim Walters) 02:56
4. Snake Eater (by Jonathan Segel) 04:14
5. The Freshwater Firefly’s Soft Polyps (by Myles Boisen) 03:20
6. Melodica (by Matt Davignon) 03:16
7. Bwack and Bwoo (by Rick Walker) 02:27
8. AM the Music 3 (by subnaught) 05:46
9. Stitches & Mends (by Andrew Weathers) 04:41
10. Selarodavignon (by Selaroda) 05:12
11. …blind; gazing… (by Nat Grant) 05:46
12. Sculpture of a Snowshoe Hare Lying in the Grass (by John Connell) 02:49
13. Ruined Gong (by Sylvain Poitras) 02:31
14. Metamorphosis Behaviour Of Megalopae (by Nux Vomica) 08:07
15. Shivering Tarmac (by Matt Davignon) 05:15

Proceeds for the digital album will support the Outsound New Music series at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco, namely, supplies and perhaps a new mixing board.

Artwork & Design by Jason Hoopes
Mastered by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha

Gnome & Spybey return with their third release on Crime League entitled ‘Reflective’.

Mark Spybey is no stranger to the annals of experimental ambient music, having been involved in a diverse range of projects such as Download, Zoviet France, Beehatch, and most famously Dead Voices on Air. Tony D’Oporto is another musical veteran with his own project Gnomes of Kush, though his talents have been more in the beat-driven genres of trance, synthpop, house and Down Tempo music. Together, these two masters of atmospheric craft form Gnome & Spybey.

Featuring 10 new songs, including collaborations with Robert Rich, Tom Shear, Simon Polinski, Dominic Smelt and Crime League’s own Displacer.

Available in Limited Edition CD with Poster and digital format November 15, 2014.

See more …

• 01. There are Gnomes
• 02. Achim
• 03. Through My Childs Eyes
• 04. The Ballad of Bernadine Dohrn
• 05. To See With the Eyes of an Angel
• 06. Trois Gnomnes
• 07. Atomes
• 08. Gigantic
• 09. Nine
• 10. A Way to Begin

Written and produced by Tony D’Oporto, Mark Spybey and (2) Tom Shear (3) Michael Morton (5) Dominic Smelt (6 & 7) Robert Rich (10) Simon Polinski

Mastering by Steven Seibold at Uniform Media

Cover art by Christopher Buening Layout

Design by Marco Roberti

Copyright © Gnome & Spybey and Crime League 2014, All rights reserved.

November 3, 2014 – 13:00 | ambient music, REVIEWS – Ambientblog.NET

Robert Rich‘s “Somnium” – released in 2001 – was (and still is) one of the landmark monuments of ambient music. Based on his experience playing sleep concerts since 1982, this 7 hour work was especially composed to be your companion during the night, following the natural flow of sleep cycles. The original Somnium DVD (that was the only format then that could hold such an amount of music) has long sold out now. But the good news is: there is a successor to this project now: “Perpetual” (and its physical release also contains the original “Somnium” recordings)!

The new ‘all-nighter’ is similar in concept, but with eight (!) hours playing time it is even one hour longer than “Somnium”. The BluRay disc it is released on can hold a lot more data than a DVD can, so this disc does not only contain eight hours of “Perpetual“ in 24 bit/48KHz resolution, but also the full resolution “Somnium” (in 16bit 48KHz). That’s fifteen full hours of music! For those that don’t have a BluRay player at hand, a download version (MP3 + FLAC) is also available.

“The sleep concert has been one of the dominant threads in my musical journey through life. (…) Occasionally, I feel an urge to return to this slow-motion core of my creative heart, and occasionally the world comes back to remind me that I will always be connected to sonic explorations at the edges of perception, trance consciousness, dreams, altered states, communal ritual.”

In the first ten minutes of the Perpetual set can be used to set the appropriate volume: “the environmental sounds during this part should be nearly inaudible”.

Soundwise, quite a lot is happening there: a meandering guitar sound over a (relatively) busy atmosphere. But just like in a real night, and just like when falling asleep, the music gradually slows down and becomes quieter. The environmental sounds merge together into a light, high-pitched continuous drone. The music slowly looses all sense of time, and you probably do too. Though that does not mean it just stays the same: there are subtle shifts in the soundscape that you may notice when coming back to near-consciousness to a less deep sleep.

Though “Perpetual” and “Somnium” were conceived as ‘sleep music’ (the booklet contains some interesting notes about the Sleep concerts and the effect on the various stages of sleep), you can of course also listen at daytime, while awake.

There may not be very much opportunities to play an 8-hour album in one go (and another 7 hours following that), but I found that the music did a great job accompanying me through a full working day: it helped me concentrate because it shut out distracting sounds from the outside, and created a warm, pleasant atmosphere.

Rich also advises to create a multiple speaker environment, by using a 5.1 channel home theatre system to create a surround illusion (the set itself is a stereo recording), or using a four speaker setup. Not many people will have such a setup in their bedrooms, but sure it’s a good way to listen to the album while awake.

There’s an interesting side-note about some of the sound recordings in “Somnium” too: some of the environmental recordings were taken from a species of tropical fish “that creates audio frequency electrical oscillations from its skin. We placed about 16 fish in a bucket (…) Each fish emits a unique frequency as a sort of territorial marker, and as the fish lazily circulate around the bucket, individual tones become louder of softer in a very non-human slow motion symphony.”

This San Francisco Bay Area ambient pioneer [Robert Rich] began building his own synthesizer at the age of 13 – around the same time he became interested in avant-garde and minimal composition. By the time he got to college at Stanford (around 1981), he began organizing “sleep concerts,” playing abstract drones and soundscapes to influence audiences’ REM cycles. This lecture covers music as ritual, modular synths, mastering advice, magic, sampling tree frogs, and psytrance raves… among many other things.

[Red Bull Music Academy – RBMA]