Ambient Highways: Volume 4 – Issue 1

The Ambient Highways newsletter serves as a roll up of all the recent music related activity from me. The newsletter is also sent to fans on my mailing list. You can join now by clicking here!

What’s New

Songs from the Wounded Heart

I released my latest album Songs from the Wounded Heart and it’s now available at all the major digital distributors including Spotify, Apple Music/iTunes, Google Play, and others.

This album includes new material along with new versions of fan favorites that all have that sad / melancholy feel to them.  Be sure to check it!

Release Cadence

I’ve had a couple of folks tell me that it appears I have released a ton of material over the past two years and that’s true.  I have released literally 9-10 albums over the past 2 1/2 years.  But understand, most of this material was technically already “finished” and just needed polishing.  A lot of the material was re-released material from many albums that I have ‘redacted’ due to quality issues.

Suffice it to say that my WIP bin of music of all that older material is for the most part now finished and released (There are still quite a few of unreleased tracks, but I’m unsure when they’ll actually show up on any official released album at this time).

So, what this means is that my release cadence will more than likely slow way down.  I would however expect that I should be releasing at least 2 albums per year as we move forward.   I love creating music, and if I feel there is music ready to be released to the world, it will be sent out.  So we’ll see how my cadence moves going forward.  But I think 2 albums per year is a good estimate.

Defining my Micro Niche

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research into how I can take my music career to the next level, and one of the things I’m seeing quite often is affectively establishing my micro niche.  Setting myself apart from other electronic / ambient type musicians.

I’ve toyed with a self made title for many years that I’ve used on a couple of albums before, and when I sit back and think about it … it truly is what I like to do.

As you know, my goal is to eventually score music for film and TV for a living. Until that becomes a reality, I tend to release albums that are all abstractions from either books I’ve read or story ideas I’ve come up with.

Well, I’ve decided to move forward even more with releasing material of this nature and have defined my micro niche as Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtrack Composer.

Whereas an “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” is a recording of music prepared specifically for a released film tv series, my “Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtracks” are based on books / stories etc. that currently do not have an official film released, or a musical retelling of the subject matter.

I’ve done this with my albums March of the Inanimate: Repossessed, Mister Stichs, Gunslinger – A Journey to the Dark Tower in Music: Volume 1 and other albums before, and moving forward I plan on labeling many more albums “officially” in this manner.

Of course that doesn’t mean that I won’t release the occasional NON soundtrack-esque album such as Ambient Highways, For the Willow Wept, Pillars and albums like my latest Songs from the Wounded Heart. It just means my emphasis will be on releasing more Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtracks for the time being.

So from this point forward, most of my branding will state Keith Richie: Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtrack Composer.

I think it’s kind of catchy 🙂 What do you think?

What’s Next

Here’s a list of things I’m working on next and what’s in store for the future!

New Untitled Dark Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtrack

Now that Songs from the Wounded Heart is finished, I’m in the promoting phase for that album, but I’m already in the early stages of preparing my next album as well.

Of course this new album is an Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtrack, and let’s say it’s “inspired” by the work of H.R. Giger but it’s not necessarily a “Giger” album.  I’m toying with the idea of applying this music to one of my favorite book series.  I also plan on only announcing what it is once I’m complete with it, and it’s available for pre-order / pre-save on all the major distributors.  Be sure to sign up to the news letter for hints and clues as to what this will be.

Next volume in my Dark Tower series

I also plan on starting the work for my next album in my Dark Tower series of Original ‘N’otion Picture Soundtracks for which I started with the release of Gunslinger. I currently have planned 1 release from the series per year.

Promoting!

Of course, like I said above… I released my latest album Songs from the Wounded Heart and I need to do some promotion on that album.

History of Musical Influences

In the last newsletter, I spoke about reviving my History of Musical Influences posts. I’ll be sending out information on this in the next month or so, so stay tuned!

In Closing

I hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter, and if so please leave me your comments! Your comments and your feedback truly help me with continuing forward in creating music, and also help me evolve and re-invent as necessary.  Please keep the comments and constructive criticism coming!

If you have received this newsletter from a friend, or read it on my blog be sure to sign up for the email based newsletter by visiting my official music site at http://music.krichie.com and click the “Subscribe!” link!

I’m just Keeping the Dream Alive!

– Keith Richie