Robert Rich (musician)
Robert Rich is an
ambient musician and
composer based in
California,
USA. With a discography spanning over twenty years, he is widely regarded as a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient,
new age, and even
IDM music.
At an early age he thought he disliked music. However, at age 11 or 12 he began growing
succulents as a hobby. He would leave a radio tuned to static at low volume for his plants. This experience influenced his interest in
avant-garde and
minimal composition.
In fifth grade, he began studying
viola and choir. He never completed his formal training, though, since he never became comfortable with reading musical notation. He began looking for ways to generate sounds similar to those he heard in his mind. He started improvising on his parent's piano to hear the sound of the sustained strings droning in tonal combinations. He began building his own synthesizer in
1976, when he was 13 years old. In the years that followed, he adopted several musical influences ranging from
John Cage and
Terry Riley to
Cluster and
Klaus Schulze.
In
1979 he began working with a musician named
Rick Davies, creating experimental music inspired by a wide range of avant-garde and
art rock influences. This was the beginning of a long-term working relationship between these two artists.
In
1980 he bought a
lap steel guitar from a pawn shop. With it, he began experimenting with alternate tunings and developed a fluid and almost vocal tone which he continues to use. Around that time he had also learned to overcome the limitations of his synthesizer rig with
spring reverb,
tape delays and custom made
feedback systems he created himself.
Also around this time, he attended
Stanford University. During his tenure there, Rich became well known in the San Francisco Bay area for giving live night-time performances for somnolent or sleeping audiences. These were experiments to influence
REM cycle sleep with auditory stimulus. They were usually 9 hours long and lasted from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.. During these performances he would generate abstract drones and atmospheres while the audience dozed in sleeping bags which they brought themselves. In the morning he would end the concert with piano solos. He would then serve tea to the audience.
During this time he released four albums on cassette:
Sunyata (
1982),
Trances (
1983),
Drones (
1983) and his first live album titled
LIVE (
1984). The first of these was recorded when he was 19. The music on these albums reflects similar droning atmospheres to those of his sleep concert series.
Rich applied to study at Stanford's
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He scheduled a meeting with
John Chowning, the founder of the class and inventor of
FM synthesis. When Chowning saw Rich's first three albums Rich was approved for the class. This was a unique privilege for an undergraduate with incomplete formal music training.
In
1983 he and Rick Davies together with a bassist named Andrew McGowan formed a group called
Urdu. They performed several live concerts in the San Francisco Bay area. The group dissolved after a live radio broadcast in
1984. Some of their recorded materiel was released as a self-titled album in
1985.
In
1987 he released an album titled
Numena. This was the beginning of a new sound for Rich. It was his first album to explore complex rhythmic patterns, a wider range of acoustic instrumentation and
just intonation. It was also his first album to be originally released on CD.
In the years that followed he developed a complex range of sounds founded upon the seamless integration of
electronic,
electric, and acoustic instrumentation, and the exploration of complex just tunings. His music continues to tend toward the
organic and much of it is based on a concept in synthesis he refers to as "glurp". His interest in using unique sounds has inspired him to create a large collection of original field recordings and home made instruments. One of these instruments is a range of flutes made from
PVC pipe.
His interest in unique sounds has also given him work as a sound designer for synthesizer presets and for
E-mu Systems' Proteus 3 and Morpheus
samplers. He has also designed sounds for films including
Pitch Black and
Behind Enemy Lines, a series of sampling discs called
Things that Go Bump in the Night and a library of
Acid Loops called
Liquid Planet. He has also helped develop the
MIDI microtuning specification, which is the standard used to create justly tuned compositions in MIDI.
His collaborators over the years have included
Steve Roach, Brian
Lustmord,
Lisa Moskow,
Alio Die, and
Ian Boddy.
In
1992 he formed a new group called
Amoeba. The group has released three albums featuring ex-Urdu members Rick Davies and Andrew McGowan at different times.
In
2001 he released an album titled
Somnium.
Somnium was a 7 hour album divided into three tracks on one
DVD. This album was a recreation of the sleep concert environment he created in the 1980's at Stanford. Although not officially recoginized, many people believe it to be the longest artist album of all time.
In
2004 he released an album of piano solos titled
Open Window. This album documents his improvised piano style that has been part of his live concerts for decades. It was recorded on a 1925 vintage A.B. Chase baby grand piano.
On
March 11,
2005 Robert suffered a hand injury. He had been cleaning a glass jug and accidentally slipped and fell on top of it. The shards penetrated his right wrist, severing an artery, 7
tendons and the
ulnar nerve. During the recovery process he continued to record new material and tour. He also constructed end-blown flutes from
PVC pipe that are more easily played with limited right-hand dexterity.
One of Rich's other interests is food. He maintains a web site of recipes and other food related topics called Flavor Notes. He also has a long list of recipes for wild mushrooms.
*
1982 Sunyata Hypnos*
1983 Trances*
1983 Drones*
1984 LIVE (live)
*
1985 Urdu by
Urdu*
1987 Inner Landscapes (live)
Hypnos*
1987 Numena*
1988 Geometry*
1989 Rainforest*
1990 Strata (with
Steve Roach)
Hearts of Space*
1991 Gaudà Hearts of Space
*
1992 Soma (with
Steve Roach) Hearts of Space
*
1993 Eye Catching by
Amoeba*
1994 Propagation Hearts of Space
*
1994 Trances/Drones (2 discs) Extreme
*
1994 Night Sky Replies (limited edition 3" CD)
Amplexus*
1994 Yearning (with
Lisa Moskow) Hearts of Space
*
1995 Stalker (with Brian
Lustmord) Hearts of Space
*
1996 A Troubled Resting Place Hearts of Space
*
1997 Watchful by
Amoeba,
Lektronic Soundscapes*
1997 Fissures (with
Stefano Musso/
Alio Die) Hearts of Space
*
1997 Numena + Geometry (2 discs) Hearts of Space
*
1998 Below Zero Side Effects*
1998 Seven Veils Hearts of Space
*
2000 Humidity (live) (3 discs)
Hypnos*
2000 Pivot by
Amoeba*
2001 Somnium (DVD)
Hypnos /
Soundscape*
2001 Bestiary Release/Relapse Records*
2002 Outpost (with Ian Boddy)
DiN*
2003 Temple of the Invisible Soundscape*
2003 Calling Down the Sky Soundscape*
2004 Open Window Soundscape*
2005 Echo of Small Things*
2005 Lithosphere (with Ian Boddy)
*
2006 Electric Ladder*
Robert Rich's official website*
Amoeba's official website*
Glurp Online - Tribute site endorsed by Robert Rich
*
Flavor Notes - Robert Rich's food website
*
Robert's Wild Mushroom Cookbook*
Robert Rich's official website**Interview for the Ambient Visions website, January, 2005
*Liner notes for
Sunyata*Essay by Rick Davies from the liner notes of
Trances/Drones*Liner notes for
Numena + Geometry
