The album appeared in either the form of a digital download, or CD- I’m reviewing the physical version of the release. The CD comes on a six panel digipak, and this takes in very mood fitting photographs of barren misty landscapes & ruins.

The release takes in seven tracks in all, and these have running times between five and sixteen minutes. For the release Rich plays the following: Motm and euro modular synths, Haken Continuum, DSI Prophet 12 & Six, as well as none synth based instruments such as piano, Lap Steel, Ocarina, and flute. With the addition of subtle vocal work, and minimal field recording elements.

The whole album very much feels like the soundtrack for a reality out-of-time, or state in-between time. It feels like there are elements of ours & other times with in the sonic ambient flow of Vestiges, but they seem hazed, stretched & blurred- all to create a very tangible feel of loss, age, grief & melancholic hope.

The albums sound-setting is often detailed, yet always moody. Blending together elements of deep ambience, felt-yet never twee new age colours, subtle field recordings. Harmonic fragility via the use of carefully placed piano, flute & guitar elements, and a generally feeling  bleak cinematics. Clearly Rich has spent a lot of time working & fashioning each & every one these tracks sonic landscape. This is never just bog standard ambience, as every element here is masterfully placed & arranged to create the perfect immersive atmosphere.

Over the albums length the  mood & pace moves from lulling & bleakly mid-paced, though to languishing-yet slowly simmering. Onto  dreamy, floating yet sadly harmonic. Though to slightly angular & murkily drifting.

As with the best ambient albums Vestiges takes one on a  sonic journey, and it’s very much a rich & fully realized trip, which is primed for multiple replays & revisits. I must admit that the last few of Mr Rich’s albums have really left little or no impression on me, but Vestiges is a really keeper- and I look forward to returning to it again.