Tidbits from Robert Rich

An update from composer / performer / producer Robert Rich:

My remix for David Rothenberg using his whale recordings just appeared on “Whale Music Remixed” available at CD Baby here: http://cdbaby.com/cd/davidrothenberg3. Other contributors include DJ Spooky, Scanner, Markus Reuter, Ben Neill, and many others.

I contributed a new solo piece to an Israeli compilation on the Aleph One label. I don’t know when this will become available, but my piece is called “Moth Wings” and plays around with polyrhythms using the “penny in a dryer” effect that I showed on the YouTube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0qQYFA0dUg.

I also made a remix for nonprofit “Danger Global Warming” with vocal tracks from Hugh Cornwell (of The Stranglers) whose voice I’ve always enjoyed. I recycled the Danger Global Warming song into a dark dirge, a bit in the spirit of Legendary Pink Dots. Good fun.

…and, I recently mastered some delicious albums. Forrest Fang’s “Phantoms” is now out on Projekt. I always feel honored to work with Forrest, such a giant musical mind he has. I also worked on a new album from Don Swanson, whose drums graced my group Amoeba, and formed half of The Telling. His new project has a mellow, seductively optimistic mood, like Donovan meets Bosa Nova – tentatively titled “Velvet Sky.”

My own new solo record moves slowly forward. I worked with Paul Olguin last week on some upright bass parts, to replace my keyboard scratch tracks. Paul backs up some great bands around the Bay Area, and I expect he’ll be the dominant bass voice on this new album, once I figure out what I want.