Somnium by Robert Rich guides the listener through an ever-changing soundscape, with levels of subtle detail that reward both active attention and background listening.
Somnium is possibly the longest continuous musical composition ever released on any format -- an ambient music landmark. Robert Rich has meticulously crafted a fresh studio interpretation of his notorious all-night Sleep Concerts, incorporating newly recorded material with elements from the original live events.
For the app version of Somnium, Robert Rich revisited the original masters and selected numerous representative passages. The app infinitely cycles through the passages at random. The listener controls the pace at which the app cycles; "Slow" for a noticeable rate of change (for active listening) "Slower" for a more subtle effect (for sleeping and background listening).
The musical environment of Somnium can act like a lens to sharpen mental images, a stimulus to help you generate internal realities, or an audio presence that changes the acoustics of a room with a shifting aural landscape. Some of the sounds are abstract, blurry, hard to separate from the background. Other sounds evoke natural environments, open spaces, insects and animal calls, wind or rain.
Somnium: Deep and sonorous, mysterious and diffuse, liquid and hypnogogic.