Transcript for the Piece Audio version of An exotic forest of sensual grooves, ambient atmospheres and intoxicating melodies

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Robert Rich is an electronic musician who plays a lot of instruments that aren't electronic including flutes, piano, lap steel guitar and udu drums. A cerebral musician with theoretical designs behind his compositions, he also has a touch of exotica to his music. Think Les Baxter getting his PhD and spinning through a time warp of 30 years worth of technology. It provides a handle to Rich's surreal orchestrations, that sound like ancient ritual music from another planet.

musik

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Rich got into electronic music on the heals of minimalism and especially the looping cycles of Terry Riley. Like Riley, he even gave all night concerts in the early 1980s. But Robert called his Sleep Concerts and they were designed to give the listener a soundtrack for dreaming. He even released a seven hour DVD of his slowly evolving drones called Somnium.

Musik

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You don't want to get Robert Rich going on hynopompic and hypnagagic states of sleep. But Robert doesn't just want to send you to dreamland. His new album, Ylang is propulsive, melodically spinning and texturally immersive.

Musik

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Ylang is named for the ylang ylang tree of south asia, and draws from across Robert Rich's music interest from psychedelic rock to German space music, Eno ambiences and global trances. It's a layered music with rhythms that lope in elliptical cycles while kalimbas spin in minimalist counterpoints. On top, Rich plays sinewy melodies, often on ceramic flutes he made himself.

Musik

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One of Robert Rich's signature sounds is the lap steel guitar. But he doesn't play it with aloha hawaiian sweetness nor country & western Twang. Instead, it's a siren cry, like Jimi Hendrix sent into infinite sustain.

Musik ambergris

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With his latest album, Ylang, spelled y-l-a-n-g, Robert Rich extends and deepens his 30 year sonic exploration, making the most organic electronic music around, sound with roots in ancient traditions, and branches touching the skies of imagination. I'm John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.