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 & B. Lustmord
P: 1994    
Robert Rich joins underground sound design legend B. Lustmord (aka Brian Williams) for an extended journey inspired by the title and the hypnotic minimalism of Andrei Tarkovisky's mesmerizing future/fiction film Stalker. "Stalker" leads into lands of isolation and deep meditation in a delirium of three dimensional sensations and of magnificent, realistic sounds. It causes alterations in one’s consciousness until one loses all reference to time and space. If we now know that for Lustmord there is no other artistic reality, for Rich this is a long awaited return to his origins, to his experiments with the lucid dreaming, to the unforgettable atmospheres in "Sunyata" – his magical first album – and to the dimension-less trance of "Trances" and "Drones".
Extensions beyond the realm of sight, frequencies from other worlds, wistful voices that are lost in the infinite before they can express their desperation – all these make "Stalker" a black hole where everything is about to end, a fearsome corner of the Universe, a weapon of the Apocalypse.
This is a psycho acoustic exploration of immense importance that renders all the other works of the sort obsolete and sets new standards of quality in the field of electronic music. A masterpiece.

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 
P: 2004    
While better known for his electronic textures, Robert Rich often includes piano solos during his live concerts.
Open Window documents his improvisational approach to acoustic piano, with influences ranging from Alan Hovhannes, G.I. Gurdjieff and Erik Satie to Terry Riley and Keith Jarrett.
Rich chose to record Open Window on his own 1925 vintage A.B. Chase baby grand, an instrument with a more intimate sound than a full-size concert piano.
Over a period of two months, he kept a daily schedule of piano improvisation, with microphones set up to record at all times. The pieces selected here reflect special moments during this concentrated period.
These were the moments when effort vanished, and the music seemed to write itself.