“Light Of The World” is a transcendental trek from the architect of 29 Billboard No. 1 hits.
Having crafted 29 Billboard No. 1 singles and garnering multiple GRAMMY® nominations, saxophonist-producer-songwriter Darren Rahn wants to push instrumental music forward. His groundbreaking new Side 2 Music single, “Light Of The World,” is an experimental alchemy of contemporary jazz and pulsating electronic dance music created on a modular synthesizer that he built over the last few years. The single is available now digitally and was one of the most added new releases on radio playlists.
Opening with a throbbing beat and gurgling synths, the brazen path Rahn paves on “Light Of The World” deftly balances the comfort of familiarity with the unknown excitement inherent in the future. His robust tenor saxophone lead adds perfect human touches as expressed in the form of warm, passionate, and comforting harmonies while the foundation of the electronic sonicscape is imperfect, unpredictable, and robotic. The two sides knit together seamlessly, becoming a mercurial expression of driving rhythm, intoxicating melody, and relentless groove.
“My desire to move forward musically and contribute to our genre in a way that hopefully moves things into the future, that’s especially important to me. Growing and evolving musically is extremely important to me as I continue to make music,” said the British Columbia, Canada-born, Denver-based Rahn.
Creating “Light Of The World” from scratch on a synthesizer yielded something new and unexpected for Rahn. Originally, his intent was to start creating the track on the synthesizer and then augment it with traditional instruments utilized in the urban-jazz space. However, as the unpredictable and unimagined sounds emerged from the technology, it became clear to Rahn that this song was best expressed as it was emerging from the synthesizers.
“The sounds you hear in the song were created intentionally, but there’s a great amount of randomness in exploring those sounds and finding sounds that will work in the given musical context. Every time a sound is generated it can inspire other ideas. And unlike digital sampled music on computers, the randomness in a modular synthesizer creates a variance in the sound. Even when a sound repeats, it is being triggered, electrically, through voltage, and so it can vary each time it is triggered. Even if ever so slightly, it’s not completely identical,” Rahn explained.
Rahn began his journey into modular synthesis several years ago with a few different modules and ended up building a custom designed modular synth through many iterations.
“The one-of-a-kind modular synthesizer was built through trial and error, creating new sounds for a new song. It was extremely time-consuming in a really wonderful way. Taking a lot of time to just manipulate sound as the song unveiled itself beneath the electrical currents and patching of cables. It was very therapeutic and cathartic,” said Rahn.
The faith-based Rahn’s catalogue is a mix of secular and nonsecular releases. About “Light Of The World,” he revealed, “The song title is a combination of my desire to share love with the world through music. The light of the world is love, God’s love. And the title is also a bit of a play on words as the single was created with literal electricity - voltage moving through the cables and synthesizer - energy used to create the sounds. In this lifetime, I’ve been given the unique opportunity to share my heart with the world via music. ‘Light Of The World’ was created at this current stage in my lifelong journey to share a continuing message of hope and love with the world. In an age where our world has become increasingly difficult, I wanted to capture a moment of purity and beauty using two of my greatest musical passions – synthesizers and saxophone. A lot of love went into the creation of this song and it’s my hope that the listener experiences that, that the single will ease the weary soul and uplift all who listen.”
Rahn’s breakthrough as a solo artist came twenty years ago with the release of his “Once in a Lifetime” album. His latest set, 2022’s “Rock The World,” was a massive production featuring a stellar collective of musicians, including Brian Culbertson, Brian Bromberg, Dave Koz, Najee, Everette Harp, Adam Hawley, Paul Jackson Jr., and Mel Brown. In addition to his own recordings, Rahn emerged as a first-call producer and songwriter, becoming a hitmaker who plied his chart-topping touch to records by Koz, Bromberg, Najee, Eric Darius, Tim Bowman, Toby Keith, Jonathan Butler, Bob James, Melissa Manchester, Rick Braun, Jeffrey Osborne, Phil Perry, Jeff Lorber, Michael Lington, Kirk Franklin, Marcus Anderson, Jonathan Fritzen, Julian Vaughn, Blake Aaron, Nick Colionne, Wayman Tisdale, and many others.
For more information, please visit https://www.darrenrahn.com.
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