Robert Rich — Sunyata/Inner Landscapes
This reissue follows the look of the other 2013 reissue of Robert’s work Trances & Drones. As it comes in 6-panel digipak- this takes abstract oil paintings of various layers of shapes & textures, which of course is most fitting for ambient music. The set also comes with an eight page booklet taking in a new two page write-up about the making of these two releases, along with original release covers, and early pictures of Rich performing his sleep concerts.
So on the first disc we have two tracks from Roberts first ever release 1982’s Sunyata- this originally appeared as a c90 cassette tape on Rich’s own label Soundscape Productions. The album takes its name from the Buddhist concept that all things in the material world are empty of meaning and independence.
The albums original release featured three tracks- "Dervish Dreamtime", "Sunyata (Emptiness)", and "Oak Spirits". But for this reissue you just get two, though the missing title track appears on the Trances & Drones reissue. That said this release still has a long running time of over 70 mintues. So first up on the disc we have “Dervish Dreamtime”- this track comes in at just shy of the 20 minute mark, and I guess you’d say it’s one of Rich’s more simplistic takes on his early & drifting ambient work. It’s built around this very slow moving set of stripped back ambient tones- I’m guessing it’s some form of modified & stretched out guitar texture. These tones unfold in a sort of spacey & hazed hovering drone- these are both semi harmonic & rising, with a slightly sinister undertone. The tracks ok I guess, and works as effective snapshot of Rich’s early stab at ambience, but for me it just feels a little too rudimentary & sparse for its own good.
The other track on disc one is "Oak Spirit”, and this takes up the lion share of this disc at 43 minute mark. This track is more of a lose yet chilling affair- apparent it was a purely improvised track that was built around effect & echo filtered field recordings(from the creek near Rich’s grandparents house) & cluster of notes held down on the prophet 5 synthesizer. The track is both haunting, mysterious & a more than little unsettling, with its mix of modified layers field recordings (taking water & wind sounds) & the simmering/hovering/shimmering synth note cluster. On the whole it's a lot more compelling & layered work than the first track, and you really do mange to both drift away yet also get sucked into the tracks sound world.
Disc two is taken up by Inner Landscapes- this once again was originally released in a cassette form, and it appeared in the form of a c90 on experimental UK label Auricle in 1987. On the original tape they were seven separately titled tracks, but for the CD we have eight tracks which are name "parts 1 to 8". Inner Landscapes really is a classic slice of early Rich-& though the release is split up into eight tracks; really this has to be played as one long 70 plus minute track. The releases title is extremely apt as the whole thing feels like you are drifting from one internal landscape to another, as Rich slowly morphs & ebbs the work from dense & distict ambient unfolds, to more stripped back, ghostly & wispy like ambient drifts. Through-out he keeps you captivated with both his enchanting & often slowly uncurling melody lines, and the pure ambient tonally mastery he posses. I could go through a track by track break down, but really I think with a work like this it’s best to go into it blind, and let you mind wonder & drift off with-in the work.
All in all this is another very worthy reissues of Mr Rich’s early work- sure I did find the first track on disc one a little underwhelming & undeveloped, but from this point onwards it’s pure ambient gold. Really if you have only a passing interest in ambience both this & the Trances & Drones reissue are must have items!.