The day has finally come, out today on new music Friday is Rinzen’s anticipated debut album Bend To The Light. Out now exclusively through Lane 8’s label This Never Happened on all streaming platforms.
Bend To The Light
In the two months between announcement and delivery, Bend To The Light released three singles. The first was ‘Burning’ featuring Shalou, followed by ‘The Pursuit’, and finally ‘Déjà Vu’ featuring Molly Moonwater. These tracks have earned support from prominent names such as Billboard, DJ Mag, Ibiza Global Radio, Mixmag, and SiriusXM, among others. Now, on April 5th, the tracklist grows from 3 to 10. While the album has yet to be experienced in full, a majority of its 10 cuts may sound familiar. Lane 8 played two of the album tracks in his recent mixtape. ‘I Wanna Be Right’ and ‘Astronauta’ towards the end of his mixtape are perfect upbeat and beautiful tracks to come to the end of a journey of 2.5 hours with.
Rizen has drawn inspiration from a cyberpunk aesthetic for his album concept. He has created a high-tech world set in the near-future, featuring interplanetary civilizations. The album’s title explores the idea of surrendering to the universe from a spiritual perspective. It encourages molding oneself towards an authoritative figure and making decisions bending towards the light. Rinzen shares his story on the journey of creation of this masterpiece on his social media ahead of his album release.
Stand Out Tracks
Mike’s vision for this album is to depict a near-future new high-tech world of interplanetary travel, and a dark shadow hides below all the glistens. Upon listening to these 10 tracks, their futuristic, cinematic style will captivate you. It evokes the new worldscapes and you will point out the tracks that are more club-centered. A show-stopper track to me is ‘Astronauta’. As I listen to the song I feel like I am on a journey in space, an interstellar trip. The distorted notes layered, the music feeling like the swooshing of passing asteroids. The soulful synth is created from a granulator processing the human voice. Through this spatial experience, peers through human emotion.
The album revolves around the theme of emotion. This is evident from the very first track ‘Burning’ featuring Shallou’s soulful vocals, as well as we progress through the album with ‘Astronauta’ and ‘Empires (Interlude)’ touching the heart strings as well . Rinzen shares his thoughts on the theme and ‘Astronauta’.
Emotion is a big part of this album, and this Portuguese vocal spoke directly to my soul. The feeling was so amazing, I knew I had to use it. Vocoders and granulators were a vital part of the album, and on this song in particular I really pushed myself to achieve something
Rinzen
special with sound design and vocal processing
‘Planets Passing Overhead’ is a track where Rinzen’s futuristic approach with the drums and cybel is evident throughout the song, with synths adding a sci-fi touch. It’s a refreshing addition to the electronic music scene and a great inclusion in this album. Lane 8 and Yotto shared this beautiful track ‘I Wanna Be Right’ for the first time at Dreamstate. It was a prefect track towards the end of their set. Forming a core memory for me whilst the crowd danced in joy in the cool rainy November evening. A perfect closing track, happy, catchy and just a ray full of hope in this new universe built by Rinzen.
Tracklist
- Rinzen feat. Shallou – ‘Burning’
- Rinzen – ‘The Pursuit’
- Rinzen – ‘Astronauta’
- Rinzen feat. Molly Moonwater – ‘Déjà Vu
- Rinzen – ‘Terraforming’
- Rinzen – ‘Scorpio’
- Rinzen – ‘Empires (Interlude)’
- Rinzen – ‘Planets Passing Overhead’
- Rinzen feat. WENNINK – ‘Bend to the Light’
- Rinzen – ‘I Wanna Be Right’
I don’t know about you but this album is going to be on repeat for the days to come for me. Give it a listen and let us know what you think. Check out his tour dates here. Stay tuned to EDMTunes to get all your daily updates in the music world!