Rainforest is an album by the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 ambient

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

 musician Robert Rich

Robert Rich (musician)

Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he is widely regarded as a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient, New Age, and even IDM music.-Early life:At an early age he thought he disliked music...

. The inspiration for this album came when Rich traveled through the rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

s of the American Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

. Seeing the lush beauty of that environment contrasted by the devastation caused by clear-cut logging filled the artist with a sense of urgency. A portion of the proceeds from this album goes to the Rainforest Action Network

Rainforest Action Network

Rainforest Action Network is an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, USA. The organization was founded by Randy "Hurricane" Hayes and Mike Roselle in 1985, with the financial help of Fund for Wild Nature....

, a non-profit organization set up to protect the world's rainforests.

In this album, Rich continues to explore deeper into a rhythmic and organic style which began with Numena

Numena

Numena is an album by the American ambient musician Robert Rich. This is the most active solo album Rich had released by this time. It features the use of a variety of acoustic percussion instruments and just intonation for the first time in Rich’s career.The longest and most complicated track...

(1987). Several pieces carry a pronounced gamelan

Gamelan

A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....

 influence. The most experimental track on the album is a piece titled "The Raining Room", dedicated to the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....

.

This was Robert Rich's first album released on Hearts of Space Records

Hearts of Space Records

Hearts of Space Records is an independent record label owned by Valley Entertainment.From the label’s website, “Launched in 1984, this record label was created as an extension of the weekly syndicated radio show Hearts of Space...

.

Track listing

1. "Mbira" – 4:11
2. "Rainforest Suite"
   • a. "The Forest Dreams of Bach" – 5:45
   • b. "Drumsong" – 4:41
   • c. "Surface" – 5:54
3. "Sanctuary" – 6:24
4. "Temple of Eyes" – 5:19
5. "The Raining Room" – 6:51
6. "Veil of Mist" – 10:38
7. "A Passage in Bronze" – 3:30

Personnel

• Robert Rich
  Robert Rich (musician)
  Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he is widely regarded as a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient, New Age, and even IDM music.-Early life:At an early age he thought he disliked music...
  
   – sampler
  Sampler (musical instrument)
  A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
  
  , synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  s, Israeli and Persian doumbec goblet drums, bamboo flutes, ocarina
  Ocarina
  The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. Variations do exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body...
  
  , lap steel guitar
  Lap steel guitar
  The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard....
  
  , percussion
• Andrew MacGowan – fretless bass (track 1)
• Carter Scholz
  Carter Scholz
  Carter Scholz is a speculative fiction author and composer of music. He has published several works of short fiction and two novels . He has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Award for Best Novelette...
  
   – bonang
  Bonang
  The bonang is a musical instrument used in the Javanese gamelan. It is a collection of small gongs placed horizontally onto strings in a wooden frame , either one or two rows wide. All of the kettles have a central boss, but around it the lower-pitched ones have a flattened head, while the higher...
  
  gong percussion (track 9)

External links

• Hearts of Space Records Album Page