Raja Ram (born Ronald Gary 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 Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

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 The hippie trail (also the overland) was an overland journey taken by members of the hippie subculture and others from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s travelling from Europe and Western Asia, West Asia through South Asia via countries such a ...

. He returned to Australia later and studied flute at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, 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 () 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), and '' The Good, t ...

fame. Richard Bloor then joined them and together they made TIP one of the best-known Goa trance labels. Aside from The Infinity Project, Ram created

Shpongle Shpongle is a psychedelic music, psychedelic electronic music project from England that formed in 1996. The group includes Hallucinogen (musician), Simon Posford and Raja Ram (musician), Raja Ram (one of three in The Infinity Project). The duo ...

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 (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as bei ...

Boy George George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George grew up in Eltham a ...

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 separat ...

. 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