[Cover photo credit to Angelina Castillo]
Nashville-based ambient composer Rich Ruth has announced the upcoming release of I Survived, It’s Over via Third Man Records for Friday, August 12, 2022. It will arrive on black vinyl, CD and Bandcamp exclusive cassette tape, with indie record store-exclusive light blue colored vinyl coming soon.
Mixed by Chicago Producer/engineer John McEntire (Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, Stereolab), I Survived, It’s Over has also been previewed with the release of opening track, “Taken Back,” in which sitar, shells, and bass are joined by guitar, synth, and drums. A visualizer created by Brook Linder has also been made public.
Rich Ruth frontman Michael Ruth had a very specific reason for creating the project:
I Survived, It’s Over is a meditation on healing, confronting trauma, surrendering, and finding peace. I constantly experiment with sound until it reflects the way I am feeling and attempt to sculpt something meaningful from it.
Rich Ruth, a.k.a. veteran Nashville-based musician Michael Ruth, took a break from touring with various bands in 2018 and dedicated himself to composing ambient music in his small home studio, focusing on the diverse traditions of Ambient, New Age, Spiritual Jazz, Kosmiche, and minimalist music.
One summer morning, Ruth was held up at gunpoint and carjacked by two people outside of his home. His music allowed him to work through this personal struggle, including his 2019 debut album, Calming Signals. Where There’s Life followed in 2021, a collection of meditative pieces written in the early months of the pandemic manifesting “the collective sense of uncertainty and solitude of the time”.
Recorded in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and in the wake of a series of tornadoes that wreaked havoc upon his North Nashville neighborhood, I Survived, It’s Over sees Rich Ruth pushing his music further into new sonic and emotional terrain. Melding inventive sound exploration and a “transcendent passion for nature”, Ruth creates a “deeply affirmative musical movement”.
Ruth adds:
Working on this music is a daily meditation. I wanted to encapsulate the tranquility and disarray found within this process.
