Rich, Robert

Artist: Robert Rich & Ian Boddy 
P: 2005   
DIN 21
LTD 2000 Copies
"Lithosphere" is the second collaborative release between DiN label boss Ian Boddy & American ambient pioneer Robert Rich. Following on from their debut album "Outpost" (DiN 11 - 2002) the duo once again decided to eschew the false economy of a purely virtual collaboration and convened at Rich's Californian Soundscape studio to physically work together over an intense period of 10 days. Following Boddy's departure Rich then honed and fine-tuned the arrangements before finalising the mastering of the project.
Whereas "Outpost" was sonically 'out there' and was perceived by many to have it's heart in the realms of space music, "Lithosphere" has a more earthy, organic quality. Once again the album is centered around Rich's signature lap steel guitar voicings and deep bass machinations of his analogue MOTM modular system. However Boddy's input is once again unexpected in it's direction with astonishing sound design elements intermingling with delicate keyboard textures using high quality sampled glass & stone percussion instruments together with haunting string & woodwind loops.
One of the binding forces for this album was the duos decision to utilise an alternate just intonation tuning. This at times gives the harmonies a piquant flavour whereas at others a glistening quality that just adds to the sonic exotica that Boddy & Rich have concocted on "Lithosphere".
Boddy has always pushed the aspect of collaborations within his DiN catalogue and "Lithosphere" shows the true advantage such a philosophy brings to bear musically on the labels output. The album is a true reflection of the two artists combined efforts and could only have been produced with their joint work ethic. "Outpost" is one of the most popular DiN albums. There's every chance that "Lithosphere" could surpass the high standard that it's illustrious predecessor has set.

Artist: Robert Rich & Markus Reuter
P: 2007 
The Rich/Reuter collaboration is called "Eleven Questions". It's at times intense, rhythmic, melodic, quirky, a bit noisy, and it should come out in Autumn.
We're hoping this CD might surprise you a bit. Thirteen short pieces fall together as a sort of puzzle, sometimes odd and playful, sometimes rather intense. This international collaboration was conceived, composed and recorded in person in one intense week at Robert Rich's Soundscape studio in California. Rich then completed, mixed and mastered the work over the subsequent two months.
Unlike most releases of the ambient/electronica genre, each piece on Eleven Questions has an instant hookiness. The songs form short, concise statements. The album features mostly acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments (lap steel, touch guitar, piano, acoustic guitar, flutes) rather than synthesizers. With audiophile sensibilities, Rich and Reuter employed the best of custom tube, vintage and contemporary studio equipment to craft a unique sonic landscape.
This is an album for lovers of modern movie soundtracks, sound fanatics and people who look for beauty and melody in contemporary music.
Markus Reuter - Touch Guitar, Acoustic Guuitar, Piano
Robert Rich - Sound Design, Piano, Flutes, Lap Steel Guitar
SiRenée - Voices

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2012 / 2022
10 years earlier, in 2012, Michael published his first label release on SynGate's newly founded sub-label "Luna", for which the musician and graphic designer also designed the logo. Since then, this album has been one of Michael Brückner's personal favorites among the albums he recorded. The new re-release is now much more than a re-release, in fact completely new tracks were created when the individual pieces were not only remixed but completely reinterpreted by other artists that Michael had invited to this project. The excellent participating artists on ELEVENTH SUN are:
- ZenSugar
- Robert Rich
- Mathias Grassow
- Markus Reuter
- Forrest Fang
- J. Peter Schwalm100
Michael says: "I'm really impressed and happy how the new versions have taken shape through the hands of the immensely talented artists. The double album offers the remix with the artists involved on CD1 and the original album from 2012 on CD2 The album features the remix with the artists involved above.

Artist: Perceptual Defence + Robert Rich
P: 2020
2 long flowing ambienttracks with Robert Rich playing his brilliant Steel Guitar.

Artist: Robert Rich & Alio Die 
P: 1997
Rich & Musso are at their best here; they made seven well-defined tracks, sparkled with sensuality and riding along a very gentile rhythm. Unlike the dark ambient genre, this CD doesn't get lost in cheap soundeffects & it certainly doesn't give you a unbearable headache! This is Rich's strongest, most profound collaborative effort since his outings with Steve Roach (Strata, Soma). Teaming up with Alio Die (aka Stefano Musso), this rich, organic soundscape seems to speak to the listener at the primordial and cellular level. These immersive sonic/musical explorations are as sad and haunting as they are beautiful and rejuvenating. Definitely an album to lose yourself in.

Artist: Robert Rich & Faryus
P: 2008   
Deep drone ambient textures and dense atmospheres, presented in six uninterrupted partsby Robert Rich and Faria label owner Andrey Sadovnikov. Mixed and mastered by Robert Rich.
Tangential glimpses remotely echoed, untethered from touch. No time nor place, no past nor future, internal, external. Sculpting from energy, clouded motion vaguely slipping. Evanescent vibration, without meaning apart from its own open secret.

Here the last copy!

Artist: Robert Rich & Ian Boddy 
P: 2008   
DIN 29
LTD 2000 Copies
React is the third collaboration between American ambient pioneer Robert Rich and DiN label boss Ian Boddy. However, unlike their previous two studio outings on the DiN label, Outpost (2001) and Lithosphere (2005), this is a record of their first ever live performance at the Star’s End Radio Show 30th Anniversary Celebration Concert in Philadelphia in June 2007.

The duo forge a fascinating sonic collaboration that allows for glimpses of each other’s musical personalities to be seen within the evolving musical landscape. Boddy is mainly responsible for the rhythmic content which he mutates and morphs from the sonic input of Rich’s MOTM modular system. There are references to a couple of tracks from Outpost (Ice Fields and The Edge of Nowhere) and the title track of Lithosphere but they’re presented in a more energised and dynamic version. Meanwhile Rich paints a tapestry of sound with muted keyboards, flutes and his trademark gliss lap steel guitar voicing.

The music ebbs and flows from abstract soundscapes through gentle reveries to up tempo sections that combine thunderous analogue bass and glitchy percussion overlain with a mesmerising mix of keyboards, flutes and gliss guitar. A truly unique concert performance by two of the most accomplished musicians in modern ambient electronica.

Artist: Robert Rich 
P: 1995
You can rate this as one of the best ambient recordings ever, but the material on it is different, engaging, and ideally meditative fare. The concept of the project is perhaps the most interesting part of it: an attempt to extract the slow, introductory part of the raga called the "alap" from its usual role and recast it as a stand-alone kind of ambient or trance music. In this effort Moskow provides a wandering, ethereal, Eno-like kind of play on the sarod over Rich's electronics and multi-instrumental backings. There are six parts to the cd, each of about ten minutes in length, but the division seems superfluous. This cd will either take its listener by storm, or produce a kind of effect that will lead to a couple of quick plays followed by permanent dust-collecting on the shelf.

Artist: Robert Rich + Luca Formentini
P:  2024
LTD 1000
We began by clearing an open space to observe our mutual voice, an hour or so of empty form. We then carpeted that space with a continuum of transitioning clouds, where patterns of light and shadow might suggest possibilities of ornament, the placement of furniture in a room. Listening intensely to each other’s inquisitive gestures, shapes evolved from the liquid flow. Architectures emerged from under an ocean. As each shape suggested itself into existence, it requested further adornment. A strange forest of living sounds wove its branches around that scaffolding of hermetic silence.