Robert Rich (musician)

Robert Rich (born August 23, 1963) is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he has been called a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient music, New-age music, and even IDM.

1980s: Sleep concerts and Early Career
During Rich's time at Stanford University in the 1980s, he became well known in the San Francisco Bay Area for giving live night-time performances for somnolent or sleeping audiences. These performances were experiments to influence REM cycle sleep with auditory stimulus. They were usually nine hours long and lasted from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. During these performances, he would generate abstract drones and atmospheres while the audience dozed in sleeping bags that they brought themselves. In the morning, he ended the concert with piano solos and served tea.

During this time, he released four albums on cassette: Sunyata (1982), Trances (1983), Drones (1983), and his first live album titled Live (1984). He recorded the first album when he was 18 years old.

Rich applied to study at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He organized a meeting with John Chowning, the founder of the class and inventor of FM synthesis. When Chowning saw Rich’s first three albums, he was approved for the class.

In 1983, he and Rick Davies together with a bassist named Andrew McGowan, formed a group called "Urdu". They performed several live concerts in the San Francisco Bay area. The group dissolved after a live radio broadcast in 1984. Some of the group's recorded material was released as a self-titled album in 1985.

In 1987, Rich released an album titled ' Numena'. This album marked the beginning of a new sound for Rich; it was his first album to explore complex rhythmic patterns, a wider range of acoustic instrumentation, and just intonation. It was also his first album to be released on CD originally.

1990s–2000s
In the years that followed, he developed a complex range of sounds founded upon the seamless integration of electronic, electric, and acoustic instrumentation, and the exploration of complex just tunings. His music continues to reflect the organic and much of it is based on a concept in synthesis he refers to as glurp. His interest in using unique sounds inspired him to create a large collection of original field recordings and homemade instruments. One of these instruments is a range of flutes made from PVC pipe.

His interest in unique sounds has also given him work as a sound designer for synthesizer presets and for E-mu Systems’ Proteus 3 and Morpheus sound modules. He has also designed sounds for films including Pitch Black and Behind Enemy Lines, a series of sampling discs called Things that Go Bump in the Night, and a library of Acid Loops called Liquid Planet. He has also helped develop the MIDI micro-tuning specification, which is the standard used to create justly tuned compositions in MIDI.

His collaborators over the years have included Steve Roach, Brian "Lustmord" Williams, Lisa Moskow, Alio Die, and Ian Boddy.

In 1992, he formed a new group called Amoeba. The group released three albums featuring ex-Urdu members Rick Davies and Andrew McGowan at different times.

In 2001, he released an album titled Somnium, a 7-hour album divided into three tracks on one DVD video. This album was a recreation of the sleep-concert environment he had created during the 1980s at Stanford. Although not officially recognised, many people believe it to be the longest artist album of all time.

In 2004, he released an album of piano solos titled Open Window. This album documents his improvised piano style that has been part of his live concerts for decades. It was recorded on a 1925 vintage A.B. Chase baby grand piano.

On March 11, 2005, Rich suffered a hand injury while cleaning a glass jug, accidentally slipping and falling on top of it. During the recovery process, he continued to record new material and tour. He also constructed end-blown flutes from PVC pipe that are more easily played with his limited right-hand dexterity.

During his 2006 tour, Rich performed in front of a film created by visual artist Daniel Colvin as a backdrop. After the tour, he created a score for the film, which was released on CD and DVD in 2007 under the title Atlas Dei. In 2007, he also released the album Illumination, a companion soundtrack of a multimedia installation by Michael Somoroff, and a collaboration album with touch guitarist Markus Reuter.

Solo studio and live albums

 * 1982: Sunyata (reissued 2013 on Sunyata & Inner Landscapes)
 * 1983: Trances (reissued 1994 on Trances/Drones)
 * 1983: Drones (reissued 1994 on Trances/Drones)
 * 1984: Live (live)
 * 1987: Inner Landscapes (live) (reissued 2013 on Sunyata & Inner Landscapes)
 * 1987: Numena (reissued 1997 on Numena + Geometry)
 * 1989: Rainforest
 * 1991: Gaudí
 * 1991: Geometry (reissued 1997 on Numena + Geometry)
 * 1994: Propagation
 * 1994: Night Sky Replies (limited edition 3" CD)
 * 1996: A Troubled Resting Place (collects lone tracks)
 * 1998: Below Zero (collects lone tracks)
 * 1998: Seven Veils
 * 2000: Humidity (live, 3 discs)
 * 2001: Somnium (audio in DVD-video format)
 * 2001: Bestiary
 * 2003: Temple of the Invisible
 * 2003: Calling Down the Sky
 * 2004: Open Window
 * 2005: Echo of Small Things
 * 2006: Electric Ladder
 * 2007: Music from Atlas Dei
 * 2007: Illumination
 * 2009: Live Archive
 * 2010: Ylang
 * 2011: Medicine Box
 * 2012: Nest
 * 2013: Morphology
 * 2014: Premonitions 1980-1985
 * 2014: Perpetual (A Somnium Continuum)
 * 2015: Filaments
 * 2016: What We Left Behind
 * 2016: Foothills: Robert Rich Live on KFJC, 28 May 2014
 * 2016: Vestiges
 * 2017: Live at the Gatherings 2015
 * 2018: The Biode
 * 2019: Tactile Ground
 * 2020: Offering to the Morning Fog
 * 2020: Neurogenesis
 * 2023: Travelers' Cloth

Collaboration albums

 * 1985: Urdu by Urdu
 * 1990: Strata (with Steve Roach)
 * 1992: Soma (with Steve Roach)
 * 1993: Eye Catching by Amoeba
 * 1995: Yearning (with Lisa Moskow)
 * 1995: Stalker (with Brian "Lustmord" Williams)
 * 1997: Watchful by Amoeba
 * 1997: Fissures (with Stefano Musso/Alio Die)
 * 2000: Pivot by Amoeba
 * 2002: Outpost (with Ian Boddy)
 * 2005: Lithosphere (with Ian Boddy)
 * 2007: Eleven Questions (with Markus Reuter)
 * 2008: React (with Ian Boddy)
 * 2008: Zerkalo (with Faryus)
 * 2014: A Scattering Time by Meridiem (with Percy Howard)
 * 2017: Lift a Feather to the Flood (with Markus Reuter)
 * 2022: For Sundays when it Rains (with Luca Formentini)

DVDs

 * 2007 Atlas Dei

General references

 * Interview (January 2005), Ambient Visions website.
 * Liner notes, Sunyata (1982).
 * Essay by Rick Davies from the liner notes, Trances/Drones (1983/1994).
 * Liner notes, Numena + Geometry (1987/1991). Fathom 11077-2.