krichie

Vinyl for Ambient Highways has Arrived!

Ambient Highways is Released!

On the Long Road to Ultima Thule

Dead Love Premieres February 13th!

Love is patient.
Evil is blind.
Dead Love: A Fever Dream of Terror

Dead Love is a short film I was extremely happy to produce the score for. You can find out more about the film by visiting their Facebook page by clicking right here.

It will premiere during the Dark Story Festival on February 14th on the Dark Story Festival Twitch channel right here.

Dead Love is a short romantic horror that follows Hannah, a troubled young woman who has lost the love of her life and will do anything to get him back for the night. Unfortunately for her, something sinister has been set into motion.

Ambient Highways on Vinyl!

For the first time ever my album Ambient Highways is now available on a limited edition 180 gram Multi-Colored 2xLP Vinyl release!

Pre-orders started on January 30th, 2021 with an official release date of April 12th, 2021.

It is now 2021 and a short century ago in 2015 I wrote Ambient Highways. What started as a way to escape many personal things in my life soon became the hidden key to all the locks on any and all forms of expression for me.

Musically I was at an all-time low, struggling to find a sound that was uniquely me. I had so many ideas I just could not lay out, I felt blocked and with that I had so much pent up inside. Having nowhere else to turn, I took a breath and laid my fingers on the keys.

It started with Neutrino, just tinkering around until I felt a path worth following. Then V Feeling, seemingly flowing organically and effortlessly together. Those two leading to a place I have not felt or seen in a long while. Adding more and more until all their notes fell into place forming the letter, I’ve been needing to send for a long time coming.

After hearing the song Ambient Highways, my wife was able to take something I could only feel and put a visual image on it that I cannot help but think perfectly displayed just where my path had led. Her cover design portrayed my vision and with that, my struggles disappeared. I was able to pull from it and various other inspirations, allowing everything I was working on to blend into a solid concept.

Even after this 6-year century, I can still listen to Ambient Highways from start to finish with my eyes closed and visually see this body of music. For me, it leaves a lasting expression of finding beauty within the chaos. Just a moment of clarity. I hope it does the same for you. I am thankful to finally be in a place to share it with you in its full intended form, just as it was meant to be.

I want to thank my wife Kayla for being my constant partner and best critic. Also, my daughters Kathryn and Faith. If not for them I would sorely be lacking much of the inspiration and drive these songs demanded of me.

And for so many others too numerous to name. Thank you for all your support, for investing and believing in me, never hinting towards any doubt. I hope you find comfort and treasure Ambient Highways and much as I do.

Keith Richie

January 14th, 2021

“The time between us drifts further and further apart. That is why I have made a goal; to make my heart harder, colder, and stronger. The door that I know will never open. I won’t knock on it eternally.”

“We are far, far, very, very far apart… but it might be that thoughts can overcome time and distance.”

Voices of a Distant Star

You can pre-order by visiting the Ambient Highways collection on the Other Worlds Than These Music shop right here.
https://shop.otherworldsthanthese.com/collections/ambient-highways

I must not fear.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Frank Herbert, Dune

What started out as me just wanting to drop a quick post about the Bandcamp waiver of their revenue share to help support artists, turned into a bit of self reflection over the last several months. So let me first start with the bandcamp bit.

Today, Friday July 3rd, 2020, Bandcamp is once again waiving their revenue share to help support artists.
They have done this numerous times over the past couple of months or so to help artists during the COVID-19 pandemic.  So, this is a great time to help support artists such as myself.  If you would like to help support me and my music, or grab an album or single you have yet to get from me.  Just click this link to go to my bandcamp page.

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Now for the self reflection bit if you’re interested. I apologize as it’s a bit wordy.

I may have actually eluded to this in the past, but nearly all of 2019 and 2020 were not the GREATEST for me and my family.  I won’t go too far into the details, but let me just say it really sucked.  But through it all, I’ve found that my little family unit here is strong and we’ve persevered. I even managed to squeeze out a bit of music through it all too when I could.

As I noted above, Bandcamp started their revenue share waiver Fridays way back on March 20th, 2020… but for some reason I don’t think I notified anyone on my fan list about it, and I think that might have been based on fear.

Fear of what? I really don’t know….. but…

I think some of it was me thinking it might come across as shallow and desperate.I mean my day job rewards me greatly and I don’t have to suggest to my fans about opportunities to help me with my art…there are other artists out there just trying to live with OUT any other means of generating income.  Why would I even want to suggest to anyone to buy my music instead.

In the end, I think I would have to chalk that up quite honestly to fear.

Fear that people might think that.
Fear that it would land on deaf ears.
Fear and anxiety that as you read these very words I’m typing… that’s the way it would come across.
And quite frankly, it’s silly.

And that reminded me of the famous quote from Dune I began this post with.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Over the past several months, I’ve been dealing with anxiety and fear from everything that’s been going on through 2019 and 2020 with me and my family.  And COVID-19 surely hasn’t helped me or ANYONE ELSE. But a couple of months ago, I decided to just take a break from everything.  Time off from work, Time off from music, Time off from life.

I’ve spent the entirety of the past couple of months taking care of so many things I put on hold due to those events in life.  They became so overwhelming that I just couldn’t focus, so I just stopped everything else so I could focus, and align things in my life.

Before this break, I was running around at 90mph trying to handle everything that was being thrown at me, such as trying to make sure everyone got to their doctors appointments; family members also going through difficult time also had what they needed; and tending to everyone else except me.

During this break, I was still running around at 90mph, but it was taking care of everything I wanted to complete that got put on hold.

I cleaned out and organized every room in the house; I got caught up trivial tasks I just couldn’t do because of the anxiety and fear that had built up; I eliminated things that were just not necessary and were polluting my quality of life.  I even picked up a few more sound modules and virtual synths I had been drooling over for months, and slowly started trying to focus on music again. I even started a new company for not only my music but for others.

I took time for me, and in the end, it was amazingly therapeutic. 

I’m still suffering a bit from fear and anxiety, but I feel like I have a better control over it than before.  I’ve permitted it to pass over me and through me. And soon enough, it will have gone past and only I will remain.

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With all of that said, I know there are many others who are not as fortunate as me to take such an extended period to deal with life, but I hope you are finding ways to deal with your own fear and anxiety through these crazy times we are in.  One thing I surely know that helps with me and others, is music. 

So whether you are interested in my music or others, be sure to take the opportunity if you can and support artists during this time.

If you are dealing with fear and anxiety, reply back to me and tell me your story of how you are dealing with it all. I’d love to hear from you.

I look forward to sharing with you more music in the near future.

Subakh un nar

– Keith