Going to Zero: Richard Roberts/Zero Ohms
by John Diliberto 11/12/2024
Last week we lost another light in the ambient universe, Richard J. Roberts. You may not know him by that name but you might have heard his recordings in the guise of Zero Ohms. I know when I first saw that name, I thought he was referencing units of electrical impedance, and I may have thought it was a play on the mantra Aum. Both were kind of accurate. Richard said he was following the Tao of Zero Ohms or way of no resistance.
Born on April 25, 1966, Richard was a spiritual seeker in his early years, but was also studying flute including master classes with Jean-Pierre Rampal. That flute playing led to multiple flutes from across the world and ultimately the EWI or Electronic Wind Instrument which gave him access to all the sounds of the synthesizer world
The music of Zero Ohms is highly ambient. Funny enough, when I loaded his 2003 album, Immense Distance into iTunes, Gracenote’s categorized it as Dance & House Music. I don’t know what they were listening to but it wasn’t Zero Ohms. His music was highly ambient and often very environmental in sound with no melodic hooks and often no rhythms, just shifting landscapes of sound and long undulating lines, free of rhythm. He released well over 25 albums since his 1998 debut, Trans Spheres and collaborated extensively with many artists including Brannan Lane, Paul Ellis, and Markus Reuter. Several of his releases were on the taste-maker label, Spotted Peccary, including his latest with Craig Padilla To Sleep on Stellar Winds. That one is one of his most energized releases and it was nice to hear those long flute lines of Zero Ohms over Padilla’s sequencer arrangements.
It’s a good album to go out on and a title that seems to presage Zero Ohms departure. on November 4, 2024.