.mp3 format (217 bit)

…From the liner notes:

Nest
A revery of landscape and internal spaces.

Maleny, Queensland Australia. February is summertime in
this subtropical paradise. I heard dripping sounds late
at night, on the wooden deck and leaves nearby, sparse
percussion among cicadas and chirping tree frogs. I assumed
it was condensation from morning’s light rain. Next day, I
looked up to see these drops coming from foamy packets
suspended in forked twigs among the foliage. Tiny dots of
frog eggs filled each frothy airborne puddle. These tree
frogs had circumvented an amphibian’s need for standing
water for their young to mature. They created their own
diaphanous ponds in the leaf canopy, strong enough to stay
intact as eggs hatched and tadpoles developed lungs and
legs, yet porous enough to absorb and retain moisture from
the light summer rains. To me it seemed miraculous.

Nest represents unfinished business for me. It’s an album
that might have come from my childhood, from a hidden quiet
place. I rarely make such calm music. Nest folds inward
like a nurturing cushion; yet it never sits motionless, it
evolves towards a kernel of revelation with slow searching
energy.

Nest began with recordings from the eastern Australian
bush, when I was on tour in February 2012. I often
incorporate natural sounds into my music, but this music
wanted to live entirely in outdoor soundscapes, surrounded
by a subdued yet palpable sense of life. This texture
resembles my earliest releases like Sunyata, Trances and
Drones, where the natural world integrates completely with
the music.

I approach these juxtapositions of music and nature
recordings with caution, as they risk sounding trite. For
me, the combination works best when the music retains an
attentive, submissive quality. For an album like this, I
remove so much material during creation that I struggle to
leave any music at all. Each note serves primarily to
outline its own absence, to create an illusion of silence.

Like much of my music, Nest also explores tuning systems,
including just intonation. Over time I have become more
relaxed about tuning, shifting where the instruments sound
most natural. Nest navigates towards harmonic intervals when
piano is absent, toward equal temperament when piano
dominates, searching for a certain fragile balance.

Robert Rich – August 2012

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