Raja Ram (born Ronald Rothfield, 18 December 1940) is an Australian-born musician and the owner of the United Kingdom record label Tip World. He was a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Quintessence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, playing at the first two Glastonbury Fayres in 1970 and 1971. He later found success in the

psychedelic trance Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...

scene and continues to headline at large events worldwide. Ronald Rothfield Raja Ram

Early life

Ram left Australia in the 1950s to begin the

hippie trail Hippie trail (also the overland) is the name given to the overland journey taken by members of the hippie subculture and others from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s between Europe and South Asia, mainly from Turkey through Iran, Afghanistan ...

. He returned to Australia later and studied flute at the

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music is the music school at the University of Melbourne and part of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music. It is located near the Melbourne City Centre on the Southbank campus of the University of Melbourne. Degree ...

. Ram travelled to New York in 1965 to study

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, leading to his career as a psychedelic musician. Ram retired from Quintessence in the 1970s for personal reasons and became an envelope salesman. Ram later returned to his music career, finding success in the emerging genre of electronic music. He was one of the first people to make what is today considered

Career

Raja Ram formed The Infinity Project in 1994 with Graham Wood and Ian St. Paul. The first TIP Records track was celebrated by throwing the first of the "TIP parties." Some of the first tracks were produced of Martin Freeland of

Man With No Name The Man with No Name ( it, Uomo senza nome) is the antihero character portrayed by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's "''Dollars Trilogy''" of Italian Spaghetti Western films: ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), ''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965), ...

fame. Richard Bloor then joined them and together they made TIP one of the best-known

Goa trance Goa trance is an electronic dance music style that originated in the early 1990s in the Indian state of Goa. Goa trance often has drone-like basslines, similar to the techno minimalism of 21st century psychedelic trance (psytrance). Psychedeli ...

labels. Aside from The Infinity Project, Ram created

Shpongle Shpongle is a psychedelic electronic music project from England that formed in 1996. The group includes Hallucinogen and Raja Ram (one of three in The Infinity Project). The duo are considered to be one of the progenitors of the psybient genr ...

with Simon Posford and collaborated with a group of Goa musicians to make two ambient albums as The Mystery of the Yeti. He is a founder of 1200 Micrograms along with Riktam, Bansi and Chicago. He often plays the flute on both ambient and

full on Psychedelic Trance, Psytrance or Psy is a subgenre of trance music characterized by arrangements of rhythms and layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full ...

tracks and has played as guest flautist with

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, author and mixed media artist. Best known for his soulful voice and his androgynous appearance, Boy George has been the lead singer ...

and

Sly & Robbie Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separ ...

. He also has collaborated in The Zap! and Cyberbabas with Benji Vaughan. Ram is married to Nita Devi, with whom he has a daughter named Sastra. He also has a granddaughter named Bella.

Projects

* Quintessence * The Infinity Project *

* The Mystery of the Yeti * 1200 Micrograms * The Zap! * Cyberbabas * Omputer * DMT * Tipnotic * Visible Sound

Discography

*''Raja Ram's Stash Bag'' (2002) *''Raja Ram's Stash Bag Volume 2'' (2003) *''Raja Ram's Stash Bag Vol. 3 – Smokers Jokers and Midnight Tokers'' (2004) *''Raja Ram's Stash Bag Vol. 3 – Smokers Jokers and Midnight Tokers (Unmixed Edition)'' (2004) *''Most Wanted Presents: Raja Ram the Godfather'' (2005) *''Evolution of Expanded Consciousness'' (2006) *''Raja Ram's Stash Bag Volume 4'' (2006) *''The Anthology'' (2007) *''Raja Ram's Pipe Dreams'' (2013) *''Raja Ram's Pipe Dreams 2'' (2013) *''Raja Ram's Stash Bag Volume 5'' (2014) *''Raja Ram's Stash Bag Vol. 6'' (2018)

References

External links

TIP Records
1941 births Living people Australian electronic musicians Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom Australian expatriates in the United States Australian flautists Musicians from Melbourne Psychedelic trance musicians Australian people of Indian descent {{flautist-stub