The creation of Irish musician Robert Crosbie, best known for his work with Dublin bands The Riot Tapes and Sun Mahshene, Robert Crosbie / Geisha specialises in cosmic, psychedelic electronica. Debut The Sounds of Geisha was released in 2007, and was an album of quiet beauty and ambience.

 

Second album, 2013's Further / Closer was a bold step forward, appealing to lovers of both downtempo electronica and experimental music. The album was one of Red Bull Music's "Top 50 Irish Albums of 2013".

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2015 saw the release of an EP, 19,000 Objects, featuring trip hop beats, ambient washes, heavy beats, live instrumentation, and clattering rhythms, spread over four epic tracks. Later in 2015, The Beauty Of Melody Records released an EP, Pegasus Tornado, followed by an album. The Delirium Introduction saw the sound develop to include ambient house, dub, vocal tracks, and more cosmic, way-out moments.

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2016's A Sound Is a Memory is snappier than the previous albums, and each track on the album segues into the next, creating a continuous flow of music, intercut with samples of children's voices and other sound effects. Recorded at the same time was the Airways EP, the title track being a 20 minute, four part epic, and two other tracks from previous albums' sessions.

 

Family Album was next in 2017, a warm, organic album which tracks a journey from morning to night, the music providing a dreamy soundtrack. Early 2018 saw the release of Aliens, recorded in 2015, which harks back to the experimental concept of the early work, with darker and heavier sounds, though with many moments of beauty.

 

Light Touching For Heaven in an Everlasting Mercury was released in October 2018, and is a return to the cinematic, wide screen approach of “Further / Closer”, this time being unique in featuring Robert’s own vocals for the first time. Musically the tracks range from funky beats and bass lines, to the grand title track, taking in propulsive ambient house, Floyd-ian landscapes, and more meditative moments.

 

In January 2020 two companion EPs, Hummm and Turbulent Mediator, were released. These demonstrated Robert’s love of shoegaze music, being guitar based with lots of delayed guitar with full band bass and drums being utilised. This marks a new approach for Robert Crosbie / Geisha, and while all eight tracks could have made up the eighth RC/G album, the two EPs are works in themselves. Also in 2020, a second Airways EP was released, continuing the saga with another epic multi-part track.

 

The first new album in three years was released in June 2021. Afterglow is inspired by music from the late 80s and early 90s. While not a recreation of music from that era, the sounds of that time period informed the decision-making process. However, this album should not be classed as an "80s" or "90s" album. While many of the sounds taken from that time appear here (big drums, twangy Fender Stratocaster guitars, fretless bass, moody synths), they are combined with the familiar Robert Crosbie/Geisha palette of lush ambient soundscapes, deep dub bass, and shoegaze guitars.

 

Regarding influences, Robert says "Susumu Yokota, The Orb, Seefeel, The Beatles, Boards of Canada, Air, Brian Eno and King Crimson are all artists who've influenced me, and my wish was to mix together everything I loved about them to come up with something unique that hasn't really been done before. A big part of the focus is on the live instruments. It's making electronic music organically." 

 

The sound of Geisha is truly an original one.