Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Above (2020)

Swiss composer and musician Vincent Yuen Ruiz is set to release “Above” EP, a minimalist and transportative work for keyboards. The EP will be available as a cassette and will be released on No Technique on May 8th, 2020.
Above is a composition for solo keyboard written by Swiss musician and composer Vincent Yuen Ruiz. The cassette features two different versions, recorded 4 years apart. The first one, named Love Above, was recorded in 2016 and played on a Roland Jupiter 8 processed in a way that resembles the sound of an organ. The second version, Sunrise Mart, is a more intimate interpretation recorded in 2020 on an old upright piano. Both versions are strictly following the same compositional rules: a succession of major seventh chords colliding into each other, carefully selected for the way they sound and the colours and textures they create when blended together. Slow, meditative and enveloping: this work is a quiet statement that allows the listener to swim into resonances and find refuge into a sea of colorful sounds. The minimalism in the music pushes to a closer listen, close enough to feel as if diving into the depths of the instruments where each note reveals a whole universe.

This EP is set to be released via Copenhagen-based community label No Technique, where Vincent has been invited several times to perform in different concert series organised by the label. Vincent Yuen Ruiz’ Above will be available as an edition of 50 cassettes and in digital formats.

Ruiz is known for being a double bass player who evolves primarily in the field of free improvisation and jazz, while being active in various musical settings ranging from contemporary music to electronic music. He is the former double bass player of the minimalist/post-jazz group Plaistow, and has been a member of the Insub Meta Orchestra since 2017. He has performed extensively in Europe, Russia and Japan and has played or collaborated with a vast array of musicians and composers including Magnus Granberg, Michael Pisaro, Greta Eacott, Nicole Hogstrand, Diatribes and Ryota Miyake, among others.

Now living between Copenhagen and Geneva, his latest work has been a study in patience, a focus on repetition and the interaction between timbres and resonances. A certain idea of stillness often leads his sonic explorations, as well as giving a narrow framework to his improvisational style. With a minimalism bordering on reductionism, Ruiz mixes tonal melodies and textural approaches. He works both as a solo artist and with various ensembles.

No Technique is a Copenhagen imprint run by, for and with the indispensable help of friends.