Description
- Tactile Ground Part 1: Location
- 1. The Sentience of Touch [9:02]
- 2. Eroding Columns [58:19]
- 3. Shrouded Lattice [20:06]
- 4. A Skein for Skin [12:47]
- 5. The Abiding Wheel [7:05]
- 6. Language of Breezes 14:306
- Total Time: [57:06]
Tactile Ground Part 2: Dislocation
- 1. Radiant Groundlines [7:46]
- 2. Haptic Incursions [9:14]
- 3. Glassmakers Sand [5:02]
- 4. Senescent Architecture [4:30]
- 5. Heat Island Effect [7:19]
- 6. Dominion of Microns [4:06]
- 7. Tentative Unfolding [5:47]
- 8. Elevations [7:02]
- 9. Meridian Respiration [8:46]
- Total Time: [59:31]
Brilliant Ambient album by Robert!
Bert Strolenberg/SonicImmersion.org –
Especially the previous four albums by Robert Rich have been demanding above average, sonically as well as thematically. Divided in two parts, Location and Dislocation, the first disc of the highly introspective double album Tactile Ground leads its listeners into a slow evolving, beautifully rendered inner place of calm and beauty, a kaleidoscope of pastel colours and soft wavering, drifting spheres. Ethereal textures and elegant piano keys lead the way here often in a kind-of Budd-Eno style, with more organic, naturalistic elements entering the stage on the second half of Location. Opener The Sentience of Touch (as well as A Skein for Skin and Language of Breezes) turns up as exceptional ambient gems where Roberts pure magic spreads its wings to the fullest. Although not immediate, the largest part of the second disc (starting with Haptic Incursions) is different cup of tea. This deep listening ambient is much more daring a nd a harder nut to crack with tonal progressions descending into a darkening, abstract netherworld where currents of unease and something foreboding are present almost constantly. I for one would classify this as organic-spiced nightshade musings for headphones. The primordial soup of Heat Island Effect though reveals a pleasant elevating vibe while a lighter tone is also found on Tentative Unfolding and the lovely immersive floater Elevations. Despite still morphing deep, album closer Meridian Respiration leaves us gently with a sense of longing and hope.
Next to the physical product, Robert also offers Tactile Ground as two large tracks in 24/96 high resolution, the original continuous format.
4 stars out of 5
2019. Bert Strolenberg/SonicImmersion.org
Sylvain Lupari –
There are Robert Rich’s albums that require a little more attention. Attention to detail as a greater openness, allowing a better connection between the musician-composer and the listener. Tactile Ground is one of those albums. In the wake of Lift A Feather to the Flood, this latest Robert Rich opus is cast in tranquility with phases of ambiences which flirt with nature set to music with his wide portfolio of sonic paintings. Ambiances are brought to our ears with incredible dexterity for bits of ghostly melodies which crumble their nostalgia in multiple twigs of solitude. Offered in a double-cd digipack, with a 16-page booklet, or in 24-bit Hi-Res download, as well as 16-bit FLAC, Tactile Ground is an exercise of poetry into music loaded of ambient phases and of carefully identified soundscapes which have me pulled off my reading (Stephen King’s Outsider) with a smile of satisfaction hanging over my face as my ears found justification f o r the purchase of my latest loudspeakers.
Entitled Tactile Ground Part 1: Location, CD 1 begins its 57 minutes with a rain, tears of violins and a melody laid down by a nostalgic piano. We are not far from Lift A Feather to the Flood! Except that here, the guitar of Markus Reuter is replaced by winds more and more roaring, by dark orchestrations and by cries of birds in a frame became as well seraphic as cinematographic. Armed with the sounds of a barnyard, which can also be found in The Abiding Wheel”