Rinzen – Bend To The Light [This Never Happened]

Producer/DJ and ‘huge sci-fi nerd’ Rinzen finally drops his ten-track debut concept album, ‘Bend to the Light’, out now on This Never Happened, feat. focus track ‘Astronauta’. The half-Japanese Los Angeles producer’s futuristic cinematic style evokes new worldscapes, even in his more club-centred cuts. Previous LP singles ‘Burnin’’, ‘The Pursuit’ and ‘Déjà Vu’ already won support from Mixmag, Billboard, DJ Mag, SiriusXM, KCRW, Slam (NL), Ibiza Global Radio, Kiss Australia…

‘Astronauta’: an interstellar trip, with spacey FX – layered twangling distorted notes, swooshings of passing asteroids, mysterious signals – yet permeated by soulful synth created from granulator processing the human voice. Human emotion too, showcasing the haunting organic clarity of the Portuguese singer’s voice. An entrancing piece of contemplative, evocative off-world beauty, among nine other tracks equally otherworldly, some more beaty/clubby.

‘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 special with sound design and vocal processing.’ 

‘Bend to the Light’ album concept: Rinzen takes inspiration from a cyberpunk aesthetic, crafting his LP in a near-future high-tech world of interplanetary travel/civilisations, where all that glistens hides darkness … ‘Bend to the Light’ explores connotations of bending to the universe (spiritual), bending to an authoritarian future government (dystopian), and making decisions that bend towards the light (idealistic), since this new world has the human emotional problems, joys and relationships we deal with now.

So why now for the album? ‘I love writing concept EPs with a glimpse into other worlds, so now with my album I wanted to make a bigger artistic statement, build a bigger story. In lockdown, I fell in love with creating without the limitations of functionality. I took all my best tracks from the last 2.5 years for this album.’