Rimarimba

Rimarimba is the project of Robert Cox, a classically trained guitarist living in the seaside town of Felixstowe. Cox aims to take minimalism down from its “high art” pedestal by a peg or two. He does so by mixing its elements with the creativity of underground culture. This broadens the scope of minimalism by allowing play, levity and imagination to become important components.

Rimarimba is a DIY project at heart. Experiments range from drone pieces to sunny synthesiser compositions. All of these minimalist pieces were influenced by the emergence of a tape-trading network in the 1980s. The community spanned oceans, cultures and postcodes, relying on the postal service as an interlocutor between members of a musical conversation. This community was full of self-taught visionaries, wanderers and sonic geniuses.

There is a seam of light-hearted joy running throughout Rimarimba’s musical output. Hypnotic patterns emerge and intermingle, bidding us to get caught up with them and forget the workaday world. Sometimes Cox acts as musical Sherpa, guiding us through parts unknown to find unexpected treasures.

Each Rimarimba album exists as a fully contained world. The more we listen, the further we are drawn in to Cox’s funky front room, surrounded by instruments, ideas and enlightenment.