Reise was formed in West Haven, Connecticut in 2012, born out of a previous collaboration with
friend and songwriting partner Matthew Hamilton, called Ophelia. Ophelia was together on a
consistent basis for about five years. During that time, Ophelia primarily wrote songs, recorded
demos, and worked out structures and ideas. A full band was never realised due to Christian and
Matthew having trouble finding people being the right fit, and, with enough desire. Matthew
eventually exited the band due to additional personal commitments.
On May 7, 2013, Risa (the previous spelling, taken from the Sci-Fi television series, Star Trek:
The Next Generation.) issued a Mini-Album, Lake (part 1) for streaming on various social media
sites, and to see what response would be had. This was done with actually no promotion
whatsoever. Just a few postings, and whatever people would stumble upon, sites like Soundcloud
and YouTube.
During the extremely minimal promotion, “Cannot Say” was found by WhoTune, a company
that was releasing a Facebook-only app called Rock Star Rising, where the track was handpicked
by them to appear in the app, including in-app purchases.
On April 25, 2014, the continuation EP, Lake (part 2), was issued, where the music continued to
receive good response and feedback. In July, Risa contributed “August Moon” to the CT Indie
compilation, Summer Mix XXIV. The track was an exclusive version, which was the album
version, minus the song’s ending fade.
In the Spring of 2016, Christian noticed that the name Risa was being used a bit in different
combinations, and it was making it difficult to find him on some music sites. So, he decided to
change the spelling of Risa and incorporated the German spelling to Reise.
After remixing the songs, Reise released the full-length debut Lake (Deluxe) on October 21,
2016 (through digital distribution), and also being able to back it with grassroots promotions.
The debut single, “Cannot Say”, was released on the same day.
On July 28, 2017, the follow-up single, “August Moon” was released. The single was a radio edit
and a different mix to the one that appears on Lake.
The third and final single, “Shoreline”, was released on October 27, 2017. The song was picked
up by Indie Star Radio in January 2018. After its debut on the show, Mini-Jukebox, it was
chosen as “Song of the Week”, by host and station owner Alan Wayne, for the week of January
21. The song, as well as Reise, became an Indie Star Radio listener favorite. Christian also
credits the surge of Reise’s exposure that year due to being played on the station, where two of
the three songs that appeared on the listener-voted Indie Star Radio Top 21 Countdown reached
#1, with the other peaking at #3.
On March 16, 2018, Reise released the three-track single, Thought You Should Know. The single
peaked at #3 on the Indie Star Radio Countdown, for the week of April 1, 2018.
Reise was nominated for “Group of the Year”, for the inaugural 2018 Indie Star Radio Awards.
Starting in January 2019, Reise will be officially reissuing all three singles from Lake, collecting
them in a maxi-single compilation titled, Ripple. It will feature twelve tracks, including extended
versions, single versions, b-sides, and alternate mixes.
All songs are remixed and remastered, with a four-month promotional marketing campaign
behind it. The same treatment will be given to the debut album, Lake, which is slated for an April
reissue date, and Thought You Should Know in the second half of the year, with Christian going
back into the studio, “to record as many tracks as I can before September, to see what the next
releases will be.”
Catch Reise’s “AUGUST MOON” and more
https://ivthworldrecords.info/releases/ripple/
TW:@reisemusic
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www.reisemusic.info
