Please Note: The Blu-ray edition is now sold out. Downloads will remain available on Bandcamp.

The Sleep Concert has been one of the dominant threads in my musical journey through life. It marked my first solo concert ever, in January 1982, in the lounge of a Stanford University dormitory. It became a sort of trademark for me, even as I explored a range of dynamic music throughout my career.

Perpetual – A Somnium Continuum. This is an effort to let people enjoy the full extent of my sleep music, 15 hours total, in a format that can hold full resolution uncompressed audio and doesn’t need a fast internet hook-up. Note that you get both long-form titles on one disc (Somnium and Perpetual). We printed 1000, fewer than 65 remain, and this will be the only printing. If you want an autograph, please request it at the time of purchase.

8-hour sequel to Rich’s groundbreaking “Somnium”, based on his all-night sleep concerts, on Blu-ray or download (Blu-ray disc includes the 7-hour original Somnium for 15 hours total duration.)

The Blu-ray version of “Perpetual” has full resolution 16 bit 48 kHz audio, and contains both the 8-hour “Perpetual” and the 7-hour original “Somnium.” The download of “Perpetual” available through CD Baby is divided into 80 minutes chunks (for technical reasons) and uses CD-resolution (16 bit 44.1 kHz) files. These should segue into each other seamlessly on your computer, although a soft click might be audible depending on the software.

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Occasionally I feel an urge to return to this slow-motion core of my creative heart, and occasionally the world comes back to remind me that I will always be connected to sonic explorations at the edges of perception, trance consciousness, dreams, altered states, communal ritual.

I returned to making all-night music when the Unsound Festival invited me to perform a sleep concert in Krakow Poland, October 2013. This would be my first sleep concert in ten years. I decided to create new textural soundscapes to use in this performance, to reinvigorate the concept for a new generation, a new millennium. After spending at least six months developing long evolving textures for the performance in Krakow, I proceeded to hone the material into a new long-form work, a sequel to the 7-hour long Somnium from 2001.

The original DVD authoring process for Somnium posed numerous technical challenges. Luckily we have new technologies that can handle more data, so we were able to overcome some of those challenges on this Blu-ray disc. The original full resolution Somnium (at 16 bit, 48 kHz), fits alongside its sequel Perpetual on a single disc for a full 15 hours of music.

released July 15, 2014

©2014 by Robert Rich, BMI

Recorded from May 2013 to April 2014, with sound elements collected since 2004.
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Robert Rich at Soundscape, Mountain View. Instrumental sounds include analog and digital electronics, processed flutes, chimes, zithers, acoustic piano, custom Sustainiac lap steel guitar by Todd Plummer. Environments recorded by Robert Rich in California, Puget Sound, Maleny and Byron Bay, Australia. With thanks for tools and support from 2C Audio, Apple, Audio Damage, DSI, Tom Erbe, Izotope, Michael Norris, Noise Bug, Synthesis Technology, and of course Dixie. Authored at Discmakers.

Photos © 1998-2013 by Brad Cole
Design by John Bergin

Track List

1. Perpetual Part 1 of 6 01:20:00
2. Perpetual Part 2 of 6 01:20:00
3. Perpetual Part 3 of 6 01:20:00
4. Perpetual Part 4 of 6 01:20:00
5. Perpetual Part 5 of 6 01:20:00
6. Perpetual Part 6 of 6 01:20:00