Numena/Geometry

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
This double-CD reissue of two early Rich albums make good companion pieces. One can hear the seeds being lain for the organic Rainforest two earlier in 1987's Numena. It was also the first album in which he explored the tuning system of just intonation, which is based upon whole numbered ratios between frequencies. The album opens with "The Other Side of Twilight," a beautiful epic track balancing animated sequencer lines and sustained, slow motion keyboards in an aural ballet where each takes turns dominating the mix. Meanwhile "Moss Dance" takes an earthier approach with its intense interplay of mallet kalimba, flute, and synth washes. This four-song album shows that even in his early days, Rich had already begun solidifying his personal sound and style. Recorded over one year later, Geometry was inspired by the mathematical relationships between the notes in just intonation. There are three main types of compositions here--droning atmospheres, percolating ethnoambient works, and electronic pieces intertwining layers of sequenced melodies and rhythms in mind-boggling ways. Rather than set his sequencers on stun with rigid rhythms on these latter cuts, he mixes ever-changing programmed polyrhythms with live keyboard playing in beguiling ways, steadfastly proving that electronic musicians can be far more than pedestrian knob-twiddlers. As a twosome, Numena and Geometry represent a sort of yin and yang amongst the Rich oeuvre, and paired together they are truly revelatory. --Bryan Reesman

Numena/Geometry,Robert Rich,Hearts of Space,Ambient,New Age,New Age / Meditation,Pop,Progressive Electronic

Numena/Geometry

Tracks:

The Other Side Of Twilight
Moss Dance
Numen
The Walled Garden

Tracks:

Primes, Part 1
Primes, Part 2
Interlocking Circles
Geometry Of The Skies
Nesting Grounds
Geomancy
Amrita (Water of Life)
Logos

Product Description

Disc 1: Numena:
1. The Other Side Of Twlight
2. Moss Dance
3. Numen
4. The Walled Garden

Disc 2: Geometry:
1. Primes, Part 1
2. Primes, Part 2
3. Interlocking Circles
4. Geometry Of The Skies
5. Nesting Ground
6. Geomancy
7. Amrita (Water Of Life)
8. Logos

Format: CD

Amazon.com essential recording

This double-CD reissue of two early Rich albums make good companion pieces. One can hear the seeds being lain for the organic Rainforest two earlier in 1987's Numena. It was also the first album in which he explored the tuning system of just intonation, which is based upon whole numbered ratios between frequencies. The album opens with "The Other Side of Twilight," a beautiful epic track balancing animated sequencer lines and sustained, slow motion keyboards in an aural ballet where each takes turns dominating the mix. Meanwhile "Moss Dance" takes an earthier approach with its intense interplay of mallet kalimba, flute, and synth washes. This four-song album shows that even in his early days, Rich had already begun solidifying his personal sound and style. Recorded over one year later, Geometry was inspired by the mathematical relationships between the notes in just intonation. There are three main types of compositions here--droning atmospheres, percolating ethnoambient works, and electronic pieces intertwining layers of sequenced melodies and rhythms in mind-boggling ways. Rather than set his sequencers on stun with rigid rhythms on these latter cuts, he mixes ever-changing programmed polyrhythms with live keyboard playing in beguiling ways, steadfastly proving that electronic musicians can be far more than pedestrian knob-twiddlers. As a twosome, Numena and Geometry represent a sort of yin and yang amongst the Rich oeuvre, and paired together they are truly revelatory. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews:

6 STARS !!!!.......2007-03-19

Numena/Geometry is a combo CD that graces my CD collection.
One of the music works that remain hidden from common sight and lies in the clouds of sublimeness and adamancy..

I feel lucky, I had located and bought this CD. It is hypnotic,melodic, harmonic and beautiful, the sure vehicle for an inoccent mind trip in the undiscovered regions of the soul.

Do you want to create a DreamScape? Buy this.

A masterpiece of the electronic, ambient, new age, avant-garde genre.

Highly Recommended!!!!!

haunting, mesmerizing, frightening..........2004-07-14

I love these two albums. Robert Rich weaves an incredible tapestry of sound and sequences on numera + geometry. Layers and layers of interwoven rhythms combined with organic solos make this a far more complex and fascinating record than most other new age/sequence-heavy artists. I like the way he lays down multi-layered sequences and then puts an organ or electric piano solo over it. and the records more the ambient stuff, the droning sounds, swells and fuzz... can be downright chilling. Rich pulls off some real mood here, a lot of it is downright creepy and frightening. Rich's later records, although good in their own right, never really captured the haunting intensity of numera + geometry.

Two greats for less than the price of one.......2003-05-25

Both albums are prime examples of ambient space music. Numena slowly transitions you from chord to chord and makes for sweet listening. Enjoy the sonority - wander the corridors of a sonic mirror maze - focus into the deepest details, or let yourself drift off to sleep.

I return again and again to Geometry, which offers a distinctly more textured journey. If you enjoy sequenced music (early Tangerine Dream, for example) this CD is an essential. If you're not sure, give it a try. There's no tunes to whistle and no, you can't dance to it (though you could improvise with aerobics). What Geometry provides is a sonic framework for thought, contemplation, relaxation and on to dreams. Really!

If wonderful listening isn't enough - here's a practical application: Do you have a desk job in one of those "fabric-covered boxes" of Dilbert and company? Want to concentrate on your work and shut out the chatter in the next cube? - a ... CD player, good ...headphones that cover your ears and either disc of this ...CD will pay for itself a zillion times. Set the player on 'repeat' and tune out thine neighbor's speaker phone for good.

Ancient........2002-05-03

you would be hearing the future in the past.

simply in awe.......2001-11-04

I hesitated to buy this for a long time. I was exposed to Rich's heady brew of ambient by work such as Seven Veils and, his collaboration with Steve Roach, Soma. I was concerned that the early material would sound too dated in comparison. But after tracking through awesome works like Troubled Resting Place and Propogation, I figured why not. And I am so thankful I did.

And yes it does sound slightly dated sonicly speaking. But all that becomes meaningless when confronted with the sheer scope and creativity embedded in these tracks. As someone has said already, Numena is the warmer on the two with Geometry specializing in the classically beautiful symmetry that its name intimates. This said both albums mix organic instrumentation like occarinas and flutes into a concoction that is far than go nowhere new age - there is dramatic tension here, there is enigmatic texture here,there is cathartic resolution here.

The two discs are bound splendidly. As perfect compliments to one another, this set will be in heavy rotation. Especially when I need to work at the computer or simply trance out in the dark before falling sleep. I can't think of a better place to enter into Robert Rich's soundworlds. I could live in this music. And I plan to.

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