Water Still Flows Rich Ruth

• 1 Action at a Distance 07:48
• 2 Crying in the Trees 06:37
• 3 God Won't Speak 06:33
• 4 No Muscle, No Memory 05:57
• 5 Aspiring to the Sky 05:40
• 6 Blue Shell 05:26
• 7 Somewhere in Time 04:55
• Total Runtime 42:56

Info for Water Still Flows

Rich Ruth, das Projekt des Multi-Instrumentalisten Michael Ruth aus Nashville, macht ganz und gar eindringliche Instrumentalstücke, die zwischen fröhlich-abenteuerlich und beruhigend-meditativ changieren. Seine Musik beginnt in der Einsamkeit mit hypnotisierenden Loops und Drones als Grundlage für die Arrangements, die schließlich von einer eklektischen Gruppe von Mitwirkenden eingefärbt werden. Die daraus resultierenden Erkundungskompositionen, die spirituellen Jazz, synthiegetränkten Post-Rock und kosmischen Ambient vereinen, sind oft betörend, schweben aber immer mit einer spürbaren Unmittelbarkeit. Sein neues Album ist sowohl sein schwerstes als auch sein kathartischstes. Mit sieben Songs ist die LP sowohl ein Dokument eines Künstlers, der die Grenzen seines Prozesses auslotet, als auch ein Beweis dafür, wie Songwriting eine persönlich erdende Kraft sein kann.

Rich Ruth

Rich Ruth
Rich Ruth – a.k.a. veteran Nashville-based musician Michael Ruth – took a break from touring with various bands in 2018 and dedicated himself to composing ambient music in his small home studio, focusing on the diverse traditions of ambient, new age, spiritual jazz, Kosmiche, and minimalist music. His ideas became fully realized with the inclusion of additional players, pairing his repetitive, droning synthesizer movements with spur-of-the-moment improvisation to transform the material into something much more lush and unpredictable.

One summer morning, Ruth was held up at gunpoint and carjacked by two people outside of his home. His music allowed him to work through this personal struggle, infusing his 2019 debut album, Calming Signals, with striking layers of angst and emotion. Where There’s Life followed in 2021, a collection of meditative pieces written in the early months of the pandemic manifesting the collective sense of uncertainty and solitude of the time.

Recorded in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and in the wake of a series of tornadoes that wreaked havoc upon his North Nashville neighborhood, I Survived, It’s Over sees Rich Ruth pushing his music even further into heretofore untapped sonic and emotional terrain. Melding inventive sound exploration, complex instrumentation – from shredding guitars and swelling strings to flutes, saxophones, pedal steel, and more – and a transcendent passion for nature, Ruth has created a milestone work of organic, symphonic power, a deeply affirmative musical movement that transforms the unease and sorrow of this difficult era into something strong and true and beautiful.

“Working on this music is a daily meditation,” says Rich Ruth. “I wanted to encapsulate the tranquility and disarray found within this process.”

This album contains no booklet.