Multi-instrumentalist Randy Raine-Reusch has charted an intensely personal and wide-ranging course through sound, balancing his roles as an improviser across numerous simultaneous ventures that span traditional world traditions and avant-garde exploration. Among his ongoing ensembles are the world-fusion collective ASZA and a trio featuring bassist Barry Guy alongside flutist Robert Dick. Additional partnerships have placed him alongside composer Pauline Oliveros, percussionist Trichy Sankaran, vocalist Sainkho Namchylak, and rock outfits including the Cranberries and Aerosmith.
Although born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he eventually relocated to Vancouver, where his immersion in global musical heritages began in earnest. Early focus fell on the dulcimer associated with Appalachian traditions, after which he devoted time to the khaen, the bamboo mouth organ central to Thai practice. By the late ’90s his attention in improvised contexts had shifted toward the zheng, the Chinese long zither equipped with more than twenty strings. Over time he acquired fluency on an expanding array of instruments simply to realize compositional ideas for which no other performers were available, pursuing private instruction from master teachers—sometimes within the instruments’ countries of origin. This path enabled him to study and perform with artists designated “grand masters” or “national treasures” in their homelands, among them a Tokyo duet on the ichigenkin (Japanese one-string zither) with the Hereditary Grand Master of Seikyodo Ichigenkin.
His personal holdings now comprise more than six hundred instruments, every one of which he plays. The culture-blending ensemble ASZA weaves newly composed material into inherited forms while combining them in unconventional pairings; the group has appeared throughout Canada as well as at festivals and conservatories across Southeast Asia. Through his broad stylistic associations, Raine-Reusch has appeared at events extending from the Rainforest World Music Festival to assorted avant-garde gatherings.
