Focus on Raphah, an ambient music venture of Andrew Robinson, UK based musician, songwriter and producer.
And look back at 2023 and the best musical discoveries of the year.
Best musical discoveries in 2023
One more year as a playlist curator. I love discovering and sharing it. Sure you will find one or several musics you'll love.
Becky Ainge - Reflection
I told to Becky it was my favorite one. However, upon first listening, the repetition of the notes bothered me. But as I listened, I felt this incredible emotion that emanates from this melody. I love it !
Virginio Aiello - Winter Snow - 2022 version
What a beautiful piano music ! I still love his unique way to play, with so much musicality and sensitivity (the rallentendo, faster parts, all is played with heart and soul). I love the simple melody too, Virginio is a great melodist, for sure.
Vivian Roost - From Home
This is the success of the year 2023. Millions of streams, just for this album !
High production quality level, and beautiful melodies.
Kyle Preston - Mariama
Another slow music, very slow but so beautiful !! I have discovered Kyle Preston's music with this track and I am now a fan.
Between orchestral and ambient music, just my cup of tea ! Listen the night, just before going to bed, with earphones.
Raphael Beaudon & Patrick Zelinski - Les Kloropanphylles
Yeah, strange to put here one of my own musics, but when Patrick sent me what he has added to my orchestral draft, I wasn't a composer, I was discovering and appreciating a brand new music !
Byebyefish - La Valse aux Espoirs
When François accepts to just compose a beautiful melody, in a single precise mood, it is a very good (and playlistable ^^) music.
Playlist of the Month : Quiet Relaxing Moment by Silvia Blaser
A great selection of ambient musics You can submit your music on Submithub now : https://www.submithub.com/playlister/silvia-blaser-flutewhisperer New playlists
Two new playlists. you can submit on dailyplaylists.
Beautiful Choirs (155 likes)
Sad and Beautiful (172 followers)
Relaxing Music in 432 Hz for ADHD (241 likes)
A website generated by IA : curious, funny, or scary?
I discovered this site by chance. https://www.viberate.com/artist/raf21/ It presents every artist with links, stats, and analysis generated by I.A. You can look at your artist's page.
Nothing spectacular here : spotify stats, followers on the different social medias...
In this section, it is more interesting and intriguing. How did they have these informations?
The description is quite realistic and fair, except for live concerts ^^ !
What is very interesting is the choice of the musics highlighted. I think it is the best performing tracks, often the ones that have been added to editorial playlists, like "Walking on the Sand", "Self Empathy 2", "Water Therapy", "Tocane" or "Coney Island" with opeNWave (which doesn't contain any beat^^)
On opeNWave's page, we have a lot of informations on "Coney Island" (yes, it even goes a little in circles...)
I don't know what "Paris" is, but it isn't in my catalog...
So, not perfect, some errors, but some sharp informations in the description. Just the beginning of what IA can do...
What do you think about it?
Should we be worried?
Interview : Raphah
1. Can you present yourself?
My name is Andy Robinson and I’m a musician and composer from Bedford in England. I use the artist name Raphah, which comes from the Hebrew phrase to “be still”. I’m originally South African, but have lived in the UK since I was 8 years old.
2. When did you start composing music?
I started learning the piano when I was 8 years old but didn’t start composing until I was about 15. My first introduction to composition was through studying music at school and having assignments to write music – they weren’t very good! After that I started to write songs in my late teenage years.
3. You make a lot of collaborations. What do you prefer with collaborations?
I love collaborating with other musicians as it pushes my creative boundaries and helps me to develop musically. The best part about collaborating is building relationships with other artists and making friends around the world. I like collaborating with musicians that have their own unique sound and “signature” that can bring something different to my music. I generally collaborate with other ambient musicians but I’ve also worked with a lofi artist called commonbeats.
4. Do you make contact with other artists, or do they contact you?
Sometimes I will contact an artist if I like their music and think it would work well to create something with them, and sometimes other artists contact me. I’m usually open to collaborating with anyone, but it depends how much time I have!
5. Next Week, (January 24th), you have. A new collab with Raf21 “Nature Delights”. What can you tell us about this release?
This is the second collab I’ve worked on with Raf21 and I’m really excited about this one! It is a track that reflects the wonder and beauty of spending time in nature, conveyed with gentle atmospheric pads, a simple and beautiful piano line and subtle nature sounds. I think anyone that listens to it will be able to find a few moments of peace and tranquillity.
Human Roots was the first collaboration between Raphah and Raf21
Nature Delights is composed in 432 Hz, in two versions (with or without nature sounds)
6. Do you have some tips for the artists who are reading this about getting placed on an editorial playlist? (You are in « Weightless » and « Wild Ambiance »)
This is a difficult one! I’ve had placements on editorial playlists but I don’t have a magic formula or special method that I use. I think there are few factors that can help:
1) Be consistent with good quality releases to build up a fanbase and higher listener numbers.
2) Write the music that you love, not just to fit a particular playlist.
3) Make sure you submit your pitch to Spotify (and the other platforms) two to three weeks before the release date to give the curators time to listen.
7. Are you concerned about the arrival of AI in music composition, especially in this kind of ambient music?
Like any new technology it can be used badly and I do have some concerns that there will be a lot of AI generated music trying to fill the ambient space. To some extent the music platforms will have a responsibility to monitor for music that has clearly been AI generated and for bulk “background music” type submissions. In the academic world they have programmes to detect students using AI for assignments and I think a similar system would be good to detect AI created music.
However, I think AI can be used in music making, just like we use other music technology, but it mustn’t be the musician, it must only be a tool. There are some AI style plug-ins that exist to help with mixing, mastering and other functions, but the final version should always be decided by the producers’ ears. There is no substitute for something produced by a real person. I also think this highlights the importance of having a relationship with our fanbase and people that are genuinely invested in our music because real music fans want to follow the creator of the music and follow their journey.
8. What kind of music do you listen to (outside of ambient music) ?
I like a broad range of music, from rock to jazz to classical. I only started writing ambient music about 4 years ago and have always been a singer-songwriter and guitarist, so I particularly like other singer-songwriters. I’m also a big fan of blues guitar and 70’s band like the Eagles.
9. Do you have goals in your musical career? Any milestones to reach?
My ultimate goal would be to do music as a full-time occupation, but with a young family, that doesn’t seem very realistic at the moment! My other main goal is to continue to enjoy what I am doing and push my creative boundaries to make more music that others connect with and that helps them to find peace and stillness in a busy world.
It’s easy to ger fixated on counting stats and trying to get more streams, but each year I set goals and this year I’d like to release my first full album, produce 6 EP’s and continue to collaborate with other likeminded artists. If you are consistent, release good quality music and connect with people that love your music, the numbers will take care of themselves.
10. Do you have production routines so you never run out of inspiration?
I have a workflow that I follow when I’m recording and producing new music, and I continue to tweak that process as I develop as a producer and learn new techniques and acquire new equipment and software. That process helps to keep me on track and translate what I hear in my head into music I can share with the world. In broad terms, my inspiration comes mainly from what I see around me in nature and the world in which I live as well as my Christian faith. I also get inspiration from discovering new sounds, new recording techniques and from others that I collaborate with. The world is so interesting and diverse, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of inspiration.
11. Anything else? (promotion, announcements…)
I’ve just announced a new project that I’m working on called “Hymnbient” which will be launching in February. I love old hymns and will be reworking some of my favourite ones into an ambient style. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’m excited about this project. Look out for the releases under the artist name Hymnbient and on social media.
I am also going to be launching a Raphah Community page through Bandcamp where people who love my music and want to support me can have access to my entire catalogue, pre-release and exclusive music and behind the scenes videos and Interviews.
Finally, I have a new EP called “Foundations” coming out on the Echoes Blue Label on March 8th, preceded by a couple of singles from that release.
Raphah
Rendez-vous next month for new musics !
Latest release : "Calming River", calm & atmospheric piano with nature sounds recorded on the island of Rhodes.
It is the piano version of an ambient music released in april 2024.
Available on all platforms here :
Thank you for your support !
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