Like his previous album, the COVID-era 2022 masterpiece I Survived, It’s Over, Nashville multi-instrumentalist Rich Ruth’s new album Water Still Flows is absolutely audacious in its musical fusions and amalgamations. This one is a woozy kaleidoscope of spiritual jazz, post-rock, chiming minimalism, Berlin school synth sequencers, metal and drone. It is entirely possible that it shouldn’t work, but somehow it does.
Category: Rich Ruth
Rich Ruth :: Live At Third Man Records
Over the past 5 years, Rich Ruth, with his debut LP, Calming Signals, and his latest, I Survived, It’s Over, has established himself as one of the most exciting up-and-coming talents in the ever–burgeoning sphere of cosmic music. It’s difficult to pinpoint his work as jazz, ambient, komische, or post-rock, as it employs elements of all those genres and more in a way that feels wholly natural. Is it post-genre? Perhaps. Ruth calls it “instrumental music,” which is true, albeit reductive. One thing is certain, it is not to be missed.
Rich Ruth :: I Survived, Now It’s Over
An ambitious and thrilling slice of neo-spiritual jazz fusion from Rich Ruth (AKA Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist Michael Ruth). The sonic touchstones on I Survived, It’s Over come fast and thick, ranging from Santana and John McLaughlin’s cosmic collabs with Alice Coltrane to mid-1990s Tortoise (indeed, the album was mixed by Tortoise co-founder John McEntire).
Rich Ruth :: Where There’s Life
Rich Ruth quietly released Calming Signals in the late summer of 2019, its nuanced charms carrying us into autumn and beyond. Based in Nashville, Ruth returns this month with the Where There’s Life ep, a collection of meditative pieces written during the early months of the pandemic, and first recorded output since his debut.
Rich Ruth :: Calming Signals
Calming Signals is the latest ambient offering from promising Nashville, TN-based composer, Rich Ruth. On the album’s mesmerizing opener, “Coming Down,” a squall of guitars and bleary synthesizers weave in and out of hypnotic swells of bass and escalating saxophone. Eventually the groove crumbles and the roar intensifies, though there is still serenity to be found amidst the clamor.