ROBERT RICH: Filaments (CD on Soundscape Productions)
This 2015 release features 59 minutes of fluid electronic music.
Rich plays: MOTM and EURO modular, DSI P12 and PRO2, lap steel guitars, Korg wavestation and M3, zither, piano, Eowave Ribbon and Resonator, and various other instruments.
Delicate electronics and a variety of conventional instruments create luscious tuneage inspired by the Anthropic Principle, which puts forth that our universe is well suited to evolve consciousness.
The electronics are versatile, but their expressions are restrained to smooth sounds of the type found in pleasant daydreaming. Lilting textures unfurl and fill the void with their luminous resonance.
Keyboards guide some of the riffs, lending a twinkling luster to the fluid music. Fingers dance across the keys, producing chords that sparkle with an infectious vitality. Their often pingponging character establishes an alluring shimmer. While at other times, carefully executed piano notes instill a noble solemnity to the flow.
Occasions of tactfully-subdued intensity are achieved with the lap steel guitars. These undulant sustains muster their own puissance, ecstatic, piercing, but lucid. They achieve stratospheric altitudes with their yearning wails, yet studiously remain undemonstrative, contributing to the flow but never overwhelming it.
It's all in the interplay, in the way the instruments conspire to generate a luscious gestalt whose overall glow outshines the twinkle of its parts.
These compositions all pursue a dreamy attitude in which the listener becomes closer in tune with the rest of the universe. That universe is a big place, full of untold mysteriesÑand this music can be instrumental in putting you in touch with realms that prosper from inventive speculation. Many of the riffs pursue the aforementioned pingpong structure, setting up sinuous sequences that twitch their way through sweeping arcs of enticing gentility. Meanwhile, auxiliary electronics provide florid vistas for these pulsating riffs to cavort and interweave, conjuring fresh melodies amid the harmonic pool.
| Entire page © 2015 Matt Howarth. All rights reserved. |
Webpage design by
 |