Robert Rich

Hailing from California, Robert Rich has played a pivotal role in shaping multiple strands of experimental electronic and ambient music, spanning ethno-fusion and environmental styles through dark ambient and space music. In the early 1980s he launched his series of all-night sleep concerts and has since presented performances in an array of nonstandard venues such as caves, cathedrals, and galleries. The 1989 album Rainforest brought his music to broader attention by merging natural sound sources with electronic drones and exotic instrumentation, distinguished further by his application of just intonation. Throughout the 1990s he issued several acclaimed joint projects, among them two albums alongside Steve Roach and the 1995 dark ambient landmark Stalker (with B. Lustmord), while also delivering solo recordings of a warmer, organic character such as the Arabic-inspired Seven Veils (1998). His output in the present century has extended from the “lost ritual music” of the acoustic Temple of the Invisible (2003) to the densely layered kinetic electronics of Filaments (2015). In addition, Rich maintains scholarly engagement with just intonation, contributing frequent writings on the subject and serving as co-author of the software program JICalc.

He first explored electronics during the mid-1970s, constructing his own analog synthesizers at age thirteen, and later enrolled at Stanford University to earn a degree in psychology. Participation at Stanford’s renowned Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics broadened his approach to electronic composition while exposing him to diverse non-Western and nontraditional musical concepts. The all-night sleep concerts he staged during these years helped crystallize an aesthetic centered on psycho-acoustics, an emphasis already audible in early releases including Trances (1984) and Numena (1987).

Rainforest’s appearance on Hearts of Space in 1989 markedly elevated his visibility. Considerably more polished and mature than preceding work, the record integrated electro-acoustical components—Rich performs on an extensive array of instruments ranging from synthesizers and effects processors to hand drums and flute—with growing use of digital sound processing. Drawing from the textural explorations of artists such as SPK and Throbbing Gristle, his engagement with the more abrasive dimensions of electronic music also attracted listeners in gothic, industrial, and dark ambient circles, foreshadowed by the Steve Roach collaborations (1990’s Strata and 1992’s Soma) and most fully realized on the 1995 cult favorite Stalker with Brian Williams of Lustmord. The 1997 collaboration Fissures with Alio Die offered a seamless fusion of acoustic instruments and spectral drones, while the 1998 solo album Seven Veils delved into Middle Eastern sources.

By this point Rich had established himself as a respected sound designer, creating presets for synthesizers and modules as well as contributing to Hollywood film scores. He further produced loop libraries for Sonic Foundry’s ACID music software. The live triple album Humidity: Three Concerts appeared on his own Soundscape imprint in 2000, followed by Bestiary on Release Entertainment in 2001. That same year he issued the seven-hour audio-DVD Somnium, a reconstruction of one of his 1980s sleep concerts, a format he had resumed in 1996. Outpost, recorded with Ian Boddy, came out on DiN in 2002. The acoustic Temple of the Invisible, featuring multiple guest musicians and drawing on North African, Asian, and European traditions, arrived in 2003. In 2004 Rich released the dark drone album Calling Down the Sky, captured live in Denver, and Open Window, a collection of improvised piano solos.

He sustained a steady pace of activity, issuing solo recordings such as the pulsating 2006 Electric Ladder, the film score Atlas Dei (2007), and additional collaborations with Boddy as well as Markus Reuter and Faryus. Following a live archival series in 2009, he continued releasing studio albums, among them 2010’s Ylang and the well-received ambient work Nest (2012). Perpetual, extending the Somnium project, appeared as a Blu-ray Audio disc in 2014. The Berlin School-influenced Filaments surfaced in 2015. The darker Vestiges and the more tribal What We Left Behind both emerged in 2016. In 2017 Rich issued Live at the Gatherings 2015 and Lift a Feather to the Flood, his second collaboration with Markus Reuter. The solo full-length The Biode arrived in 2018, and the double album Tactile Ground followed in 2019.