Seven Veils

Robert Rich

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 18, 1998)
• Original Release Date: August 18, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hearts of Space
• ASIN: B000009QK7
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #156,290 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #29 in

  Music > Indie Music > New Age > World Dance

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The most distressing thing about the advent of electronics as a means of making music is that too many musicians use them lazily, with uninteresting music as the tragic result. Fortunately, this doesn't afflict Robert Rich's Seven Veils, an accomplished piece of work with a light touch. Rich, who plays a variety of stringed and percussion instruments as well as handling synthesizer and sampling duties, pulls off the difficult trick of making moody, atmospheric compositions musically interesting. Although a certain sameness permeates Seven Veils, there's enough variety to keep you listening; the opening, appropriately-titled "Coils" has a sinuous, underwater feel while the three-part "Book of Ecstasy" features shifting melodic and rhythmic textures. The sustained, floating notes of "Ibn Sina" complement the active, dancing rhythms, and Rich saves the best for last with "Lapis," which features an excellent counterpoint between Rich's flute and guest Hans Christian's cello. Deliberately evocative of Middle Eastern music, Seven Veils has a subtle beauty that Rich wisely allows to emerge on its own, rather than forcing it into the ears of his listeners. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you liked Gaudi you will love Seven Veils, August 20, 1999

By A Customer

Rich has many styles, including dark ambient and many collaborations with Steve Roach. But whatever you call this style (I have heard it called "ethnoambient") no one does it better than Rich. In fact, no one else sounds like Rich. His music is haunting and seems to come from some other planet. That's partly because of his use of (I don't know that much about music) "just intonation." It's a different tuning scale than Western ears are used to. Please excuse my limited vocabulary in trying to describe this. In a layman's terms it just sounds more haunting and more otherworldly than any other music. Two more elements make Rich's work, especially this one, stand out. Not every composer working in this vein and with these instruments has as strong a talent for rhythm. And those artists that do, often seem to produce only a few works that stand out in that area...unlike Rich, whose every selection in this vein has wonderful and original rhythms. This is partly due to his interest in mathematics (he has a CD called Geometry...it's wonderful, too). The rhythms are the main reason I like Gaudi and Seven Veils. I don't know where it comes from, but no one else can do it (in my opinion.) The other is melody. Many other composers combine electronic instruments with acoustic instruments and do it well (TUU, Suspended Memories.) But for compelling, otherworldly music with a sad, mysterious, haunting quality that will really transport you to other times and other worlds...investigate Rich, and especially Gaudi and Seven Veils.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An easy journey to Mecca, at times with obstacles, September 29, 2003

By	C. B. Newman "moodindigo2" (Brisbane, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

For those familiar with Rich's Bestiary album, you will find Seven Veils more traditional in its instrumentation, albeit exotic instruments. As the title suggests, the album is ambient music infused with sounds from old Arabia and ancient Persia, overlaying a background of etheral electronica. Much like Steven Roach's Australian-laced Dreamtime Return, Seven Veils is a richly themed album which sedates the listener with the sounds of the Middle East and Sahara.

Previous reviews describe this album as "too dark", to which I disagree. Rather, it is the more sublime and moody tracks which highlight the album and offset the intrusive tracks of soloist guitar work which disturb the meditative balance of the album and would have been better left out.

The album is close to being an expectional glimpse into Persian and Arabic ambient music, but the mentioned guitar injections detract from the beautiful austeriety of the album's landscape. A 5 star rating is an oasis which does not exist in Seven Veils, and the mirage of the perfect album will disappear from track to track, always when the listener thirts and reaches for more.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Trance-inducing music by a true master, August 23, 1998

By	Michael L. Medlin (Claremont, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a devout fan of Mr. Rich's work (I own everything he's done, whether solo, collaboration, or compilation, and I wait breathlessly for each new release), but I generally prefer his darker, less "new-agey" work, such as that released on the Hearts of Space sub-label Fathom (and on various compilations). So, when I heard that this new disc was to be released on the decidedly "new-agey" main label and not on Fathom, I was momentarily disappointed. I need not have worried, for this is NOT easy listening. Dense, rhythmic, yet still flowing, this disc is even more active and "in your face" than his last full length solo release, the excellent Propagation. It is also much more challenging and complex than that work. I've been impatiently awaiting this disc ever since I heard of its existence (under the working title Flux) at a Rich concert in the Santa Ynez valley 3 or 4 years ago. It was WELL worth the wait!