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Gravitationally Bound

by RIKAAR

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about

RIKAAR return, following up their excellent March EP with a full length, titled 'Gravitationally Bound'. As ever, the brothers can lull you into a serene space-like dreamscape like no other outfit, weaving lengthy cosmic yarns of intricate quality into a mix so smooth you could butter your toast with it. Everything on show here is guaranteed to hypnotise your brain into thinking you're floating through a warm aural nebula.

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INTERVIEW
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George Ernst: So who does what in the RIKAAR project? Are your roles set in stone or is it subject to change?

RIKAAR: After all these years, a way of working has crystallized that helps the project relatively quickly to good and worthy tracks. Also, the split of the work contributes to the fact that everyone can benefit even more from their free time. There is no point in squatting on each other for hours and not seeing any progress, this was often the case in the early days of the project. Every artist knows this phenomenon :D! But our current way of working is also due to the fact that RIKAAR live spatially separated from each other. We are talking about 180 km. You can't even meet quickly in real life. So one or the other composes a sketch and sends it as mp3 to the other. Since you can feel directly whether something can develop there or not! Kas is usually responsible for the rough first sketches of a track also for the sound design and sound selection. Ringo often works out the small and fine details! Solos, if available, come from both, depending on how it just bubbles from the thoughts! The arrangement again falls to Kas! But basically everything is discussed with each other and the track is sent back and forth in ping pong until it ends up as a final version in the backup folder of Cubase! It remains a joint project, which would and could not exist without one or the other brother! ;)

GE: What's the scariest thing in space?

RIKAAR: The darkness and coldness out there! And maybe the pure infinite size of it all… But basically, there is no need to be afraid, because we are part of it! And we will remain so forever.

GE: We've got a lot of numbers cropping up here in the tracklist. Do they have any hidden significance?

RIKAAR: Everything is numbers, math is everything! On and off! Everything is standardized! Even the impossible. We like to play with numbers. One can express exact with numbers or confuse people! Most are confused :D The numbers in our tracks are partly derived from real existing numbers (YD3) and return at regular intervals! And partly they are just made up, as we move towards scientific fiction. Our Tracks are fiction.

GE: Twelve Stars Shining is such a striking and expansive piece. The first time I listened to it I was enjoying the experience so much I didn't notice it was the longest tune on the album. Did it take the longest to make?

RIKAAR: No, not really. There where pieces that we had worked on much longer than "Twelve Stars Shining". But it was a lot of fun to produce this track! Kas remembers exactly that he was testing a freeware plug in and the track was already virtually created! In the last winter season RIKAAR produced about every 2-3 weeks a track. Let's see if it works again this winter season! Because wintertime is producing time.

GE: What're your favourite space flicks?

RIKAAR: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar, Arrival, Alien, Total Recall, Star Trek TNG, The Orville, and so much more :)

GE: Can you talk a little bit about your equipment and setup?

RIKAAR: Our core is the DAW! Since the beginning of the RIKAAR project we have been working in the Steinberg Cubase Pro version. With this we control our various hardware synths via MIDI. Currently these are a Hydrasynth KB, an Access Virus KC, 2 Novation AFX Stations, a Yamaha Motif XF7, Jomox XBase09! Via our Allen en Heath PX5 the used hardware synth tracks are recorded to Cubase. As software we use the Native Instruments Suite and the Cubase internal synths and some free Plug ins of course. Most of the effects like reverb, delay and also modulations are implemented in the DAW. The complete mixing takes place in Cubase and Kas is responsible for it.

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REVIEW
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RIKAAR are back, and they've seemingly been honing their eerie cosmic song-crafting skills to perfection since march's Malin 1 EP. The brothers uncanny ability to build intrigue and draw delight from ominous long soft padded chords, this time incorporating experimental, yet feathered percussion into the mix.

Opener 'Odyssee to Final Frontier' is grandiose and foreboding, yet envelops you in warm blankets of sound and gorgeous floaty melodies, coupled with glitchy yet organic percussion. It's a tune of contrasts set to stun, and it achieves that with ease. You'll frequently find yourself at ease with the contents of the 'Gravitationally Bound' LP. RIKAAR can lull you into a serene space-like waking dreamscape like no other outfit. After the striking opener, many of the subsequent songs drift into this surreal territory. Certainly, the dreamy, creamy pianissimo of 'Unfolded Time' is chief among these types of pieces.

'Twelve Stars Shining' on the other hand is a livelier affair, soaring and expansive in its composition, but also sharply focused in execution. Snarling bass synths almost threaten to hijack the serenity of the duelling pads and keys, yet they're so expertly compressed and restrained that they never quite do. Everything on show here suggests a project at the peak of its power. This is all before the beat drops in, around the halfway mark. Stumbling drunkenly but with undeniable purpose, the piece crescendos in a pretty collage of sonic ideas, before being swept away into the ether.

Closing out the first side of the album is 'Space Ship Dock II in Sector YD3'. A warping back and forth of nicely arranged notes, the higher-octave stabs sounding especially pleasing against the lower warm drifting melodic shivers. In an album of high points, the middle here is surprisingly strong. Equally enjoyable is the side two opener 'Fluctuated Particles Collisions', with it's improvisational-sounding keyboards and growling lower-octave excursions. Rife with twinkling tubular sounds and melodic extravagancies over synthesized solar wind. It's a perfect distillation of the impeccable RIKAAR signature sound.

'Far Away Passing By' is the only song on the record that could truly be called a lament. Certainly the ambiguous nature of (mostly) ambient music all but guarantees a dip into the waters of melancholia, yet the majority of 'Gravitationally Bound' captures more of a sense of wonder than terror. It's not some alien galaxy you're invited to explore here. It's your own. This almost tense piece drifts sullenly around the milky way, and conjures an undeniable sense of delicateness. Paranoia even. Similarly 'MenTal Space III' pulls off a similar mood, yet it's less lamentful and more mysterious, as though to acknowledge some of the darker themes dancing away in the middle section of the record, while pulling the camera back a little to reveal the vastness of the universe, and how insignificant we all are in the face of the unfathomable abyss.

For a closing track, 'Unbemannt Risen' doesn't attempt to wow you in a cheesy 'this is the end so we have to turn everything up to eleven' sort of a way. What it does is place a lid on the mystery and melancholia, striding with assured cosmic bounds across the sonic landscape and lifting the listener into a blissful and beautiful ending sequence. Less credit music, more conflict resolution score.

It's a pleasure, having sat with, absorbed and regurgitated impressions of 'Gravitationally Bound' to say they have most certainly done it again. 'It' being craft a record that effortlessly worms its way into your heart. Everything on show here is guaranteed to hypnotise your brain into thinking you're floating through a warm aural nebula. If that sounds appealing to you, you already know you're going to love this.


George Ernst
Triplicate Records

credits

released November 22, 2022

Written & Produced by Kas & Ringo Arts
Mastered by André "Masterati" Freitag
Artwork by Kas & Ringo Arts

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RIKAAR Bütgenbach, Belgium

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