Released
1997
Reviewed by
Kim Alexander
Label
Visit
Hearts of Space
Contact
Hearts of Space
P.O. Box 31321
San Francisco, CA
94131
Phone: 415.331.3200
Fax: 415.331.3280
Email
Hearts of Space
Last Edit/Update
02 May, 1998
Robert Rich
Numena
&
Geometry
(Double CD)
Disk 1
Numena
Track Listing
1. The Other Side of Twilight (25.04)
2. Moss Dance (5.45)
3. Numen (11.51)
4. The Walled Garden (10.32)
Total Time: (53.14)
This work was remastered after eight years since its original
production and commented on by Robert Rich, "...I was happy to find that many of the
ideas that I began to explore on this album still resonate in me. I am still asking
many of the musical questions that I was asking then. But most of all, I am still obsessed
by the same love for the living world -- that dripping primordial soup. I am still
obsessed with the tensions between the symmetric and the organic, the pull between
"shimmer" and "glurp". I am still wandering, distracted and dreaming,
lost in the garden of life."
-- Robert Rich 1993
And how beautifully put by one of
the most creative ambient composers in today's world of electronic soundscapes.
This release captures some of the best
work by Robert Rich to date. Re-released by Fathom Records in 1997, these works
encapsulate the deep ambient flow and blends of neo-classical synth-elements. Instruments
used on Numena include: Prophet 5, SixTrak, lap steel guitar, mallet kalimba, ocarinas and
bamboo flutes.
The Other Side of Twilight
is one such track that has a contemporary ambient feel to it and combines a harmonic
backdrop of spacial chords and the vocal-like singing of synth. A slow swirling of
electronic soundscapes, textured with the marimba, intermittent eerie flute solo, and
bird-like sounds. Don't get me wrong, there's much much more to Robert Rich's music than
what I can describe here as I can't be sure what instrument makes what sounds unless I've
asked the artist about it specifically -- I can only try to describe what the sounds
resemble, not being a composer myself. I can say however that everything I have heard on
this release is absolutely beautiful and awe inspiring. The deep haunting atmospheres,
drones that conjure up a vision of ancient forests and the animals that once lived there,
and the harmony and energy that flows within nature -- this may best describe these
compositions.
Bamboo flutes used in Moss
Dance open this piece with melancholic whispers that resemble a bird calling out in a
far off ancient forest. The mallat kalimba is prevalent in this track with an upbeat tempo
overlaying a peaceful harmonic bend of spacial drones. I particulary enjoy sounds
that make me feel like I am in a spacecraft floating, those long drones of machines in the
background that whirr and hum at low frequencies and tend to gain in volume then ebb back
and forth through a track with other sounds layered on top of those. Such is the case in Moss
Dance. Again I believe the "glurp" is used here, as it sounds like a
dripping of some type of liquid into a pool -- with a very slow sensuous beat in
the background, an incredible track.
Dark atmospherics and a trickling
sound effect of water (the glurp?) dominate the onset of Numen, bringing to mind
the vastness and free-floating one would experience in the darkness of outer space. This
is my favourite track on the CD because of the slow, dark and ominous yet peaceful sounds
it renders.
Angelic in its presentation with
flutes and higher pitch atmospherics than the previous track, Numen -- The
Walled Garden is another excellent track. If you don't get goosebumps from listening
to this piece of work, then have your ears checked!
Disk 2
Geometry
Track Listing
1. Primes, Part 1 (5.20)
2. Primes, Part 2 (6.34)
3. Interlocking Circles (8.35)
4. Geometry of the Skies (13.48)
5. Nesting Ground (6.13)
6. Geomancy (10.35)
7. Amrita (Water of Life) (6.39)
8. Logos (9.57)
Total Time: 68.00
Geometry of the Skies is a powerful example of Robert Rich's ability to transform
his talent in high quality ambient soundscapes and patterns of sound. This music,
originally recorded in 1986, Rich explains: "...I wanted to map certain mathematical
relationships directly into musical structures. By maintaining an awareness of the
harmonic series and its various expressions into whole numbered ratios, I wanted to fathom
the interactions between melody, timbre, rhythm, harmony and tuning." And rightfully
so, the aural connections involved with these compositions is prevalent in Primes Part
1 & 2 where Rich utilizes the marimba and background harmonics to blend an
experimental ambiance with a more obvious mathematical and cyclic sense of pattern.
Interlocking Circles is a tad on the more upbeat than the previous tracks -- more of
an intertwining of layered tempos, soft and minimal. Geometry of the Skies
portrays the aural synthscape of a slow swirling of primal dustcloud captured in the
drones of space and seen from lightyears away...beautiful. Bringing out a more cultural
beat and ethnic tempo, Geomancy adds a creative diversity to the disk, again more
mathematically devised with bamboo flutes, marimbas and gourds. Flowing next into Amrita
(Water of Life), Rich has created more layered slowly evolving
gentle soundscape of slightly less then haunting sensuous ambience. Logos ends
the collection with an even more dreamy work of aural art, a continuum into time and space
of cultural harmony.
I recommend this release to anyone
who is deeply or otherwise interested in classic synth ambient-electro music. These works
by Robert Rich belong in your collection!