Rich Ruth – I Survived, It’s Over (2022 Third Man Records US Vinyl LP)

Released in 2022 on Third Man Records (TMR-772), I Survived, It’s Over is Rich Ruth’s widescreen blend of ambient jazz, psychedelic texture and spiritual improvisation. The Nashville multi-instrumentalist builds slow, meditative soundscapes that swell from stillness into ecstatic release, drawing as much from ECM-style jazz as from drone, post-rock and devotional music.

Opening with Taken Back, Ruth layers sax, synth and guitar into a calm that slowly ignites. Older But Not Less Confused floats through shimmering keyboards and cyclical percussion, while Desensitization and Reprocessing hits with cathartic force before dissolving again into space. Side B deepens the atmosphere: Thou Mayest moves like a mantra, Angel Slide shimmers with pedal steel and Doxology closes the record in quiet transcendence.

This limited opaque light-blue vinyl pressing from Third Man Records captures the record’s depth beautifully, with warm analog mastering and a striking minimalist sleeve. I Survived, It’s Over feels part meditation, part emotional exorcism, a vital entry in the new wave of modern spiritual jazz and ambient fusion.