Raja Ram

Raja Ram as 1200 micrograms

Raja Ram (actually Ronald Rothfield ; * 1941 in Melbourne , Australia ) was the founder of the progressive rock band Quintessence and is the operator of the English psytrance label TIP Records . He became widely known through his participation in the Shpongle and 1200 Micrograms groups . He often plays the flute live and on recordings , especially in the tracks that can be assigned to the ambient .

Life

Ronald Rothfield was born in Melbourne in 1941. As early as the late 1950s, as the prototype of the later hippies, he went on extensive world trips. He then returned to Australia and studied classical flute at the Melbourne Conservatory . In 1965 he went to New York because there he was able to continue his studies in jazz at the Cool School of jazz pianist Lennie Tristano . He was particularly interested in improvised playing techniques, which Tristano taught him through recordings by the saxophonist Lester Young .

After completing his studies, he first went to Paris , then to Ibiza and finally to an island in Greece . Due to the political situation in Greece, he turned his back on being an island after two years and moved to London .

In 1969 he founded the band Quintessence there , which combined progressive rock with Indian influences. He recruited his international fellow musicians through newspaper advertisements in Melody Maker . The Hindu cleric Swami Ambikananda, who is close to the band, gave Rothfield the Hindu name “Raja Ram” in the year the band was founded, under which he has performed since then. From 1969 to 1972 Raja Ram recorded five LPs with Quintessence. The initially very successful band had already reached the zenith of their work in 1971, degenerated into insignificance by the mid-70s and disbanded around 1980.

The musician then temporarily withdrew from the music scene and worked in the commercial field. It was not until the late 80s that his interest in music grew again, now especially in electronic music.

For the Dragonfly label founded by Martin Glover (ex- Killing Joke ) in London , Raja Ram produced together with Graham Wood under the name "The Infinity Project". As one of the first musicians ever to record Psytrance records , he was a style-defining factor for this special, equally fast, harmonious and hypnotic variety of techno .

Together with Graham Wood, Raja Ram founded his own label TIP Records in 1994 , which has become one of the best-known psytrance labels and is now known as "TIP World". Raja Ram has since made numerous publications again. In 1996 an album of the same name was released in collaboration with Simon Posford (who is also a prominent psytrance musician as a hallucinogen ) under the project name "Mystery of the Yeti". Further albums of this project should follow under the project name " Shpongle ".

Although he was well over 50 years old at the time, Raja Ram made his debut as a psytrance DJ in 1998 and has since released several albums with DJ mixes .

In 2002 he founded the Ibiza- based project 1200 Micrograms , which has since released several albums on TIP World . He has produced numerous other label releases and has participated in countless recordings by other artists as a guest musician.

Raja Ram has a daughter, Sastra.

Discography (selection)

with Quintessence

• In Blissful Company (Island Records 1969)
• Quintessence (Island Records 1970)
• Dive Deep (Island Records 1971)
• Self (RCA 1972)
• Indweller (RCA 1972)

with The Infinity Project

• Feeling Weird (TIP Records 1995)
• Mystical Expirience (Blueroom released 1995)

with Mystery of the Yeti

• Mystery of the Yeti (TIP Records 1996)
• Mystery of the Yeti, Pt. 2 (TIP World 1999)

with Shpongle

• Are You Shpongled? (Twisted Records-TWSCD4 1998)
• Tales of the Inexpressible (Twisted Records-TWSCD13 2001)
• Remixed (Twisted Records-TWSCD / LP23 2003)
• Nothing Lasts… But Nothing Is Lost (Twisted Records-TWSCD / LP28 2005)
• Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland (Twisted Records-TWSCD36 2009)
• Shpongle Live in Concert DVD (Twisted Records TWSDVD002 2009)
• Museum of Consciousness (Twisted Records 2013)

with 1200 micrograms

• 1200 micrograms (TIP World 2002)
• Heroes of the Imagination (TIP World 2003)
• The Time Machine (TIP World 2004)
• Live in Brazil (TIP World 2005)
• Magic Numbers (TIP World 2007)
• Gramology (TIP World 2010)

DJ mix CDs

• Spaceships of the Imagination (TIP World)
• Raja Ram's Stash Bag (TIP World)
• Raja Ram's Stash Bag Vol. 2 (TIP World)
• Raja Ram's Stash Bag Vol. 3 (TIP World)
• Raja Ram The Godfather (Phonokol)

Web links

• Website of "TIP World Records" (English)