Bedouin Ascent interview – “I was searching for authenticity and a musical form of ecstatic abandon”
Three decades on from its release, a look at Science, Art and Ritual
Bedouin Ascent’s Science, Art and Ritual, originally released in late 1994 on Rising High Records, has grown over the years to be a very well-respected album in electronic music, blending intricate drum patterns, Eastern tribal influences and a forward-thinking approach that placed it alongside works by Aphex Twin and Autechre.
Kingsuk Biswas, the mind behind Bedouin Ascent, was a pivotal figure in the underground scene, championing a more introspective sound in the post-rave era. His music, often described as intelligent without succumbing to the confines of the IDM label, has a timeless quality that resonated deeply with listeners seeking depth and innovation.
Now, 30 years later, Spanish label Lapsus Records celebrates this visionary work with a meticulously crafted reissue. Expanded into a 3×12″ format, this version includes additional gems from the same era, broadening the original album’s already rich sonic palette. Known for their dedication to quality, Laspus has previously revived essential records from artists like As One, Swayzak and gems from the IDM-focused Sending Orbs catalogue.
Their approach to presentation—immaculate packaging and respect for the music—elevates Science, Art and Ritual into a collector’s treasure. To understand Kingsuk Biswas, the force behind Bedouin Ascent, one must trace the diverse roots that shaped his unique sonic identity. Luckily enough, our own Tim Humphrey got a chance to talk with Kingsuk recently about his background, past influences, producing inspiration to the time this album originally came out.
Growing up in 1980s London, Biswas was surrounded by the burgeoning electro scene, yet his interests leaned far from the mainstream. While peers immersed themselves in Street Sounds compilations and Wildstyle, Biswas gravitated toward the post-punk and experimental realms. In regards to his early influences, Kingsuk said:
“Big influences for me around then were also The Cure’s Three Imaginary Boys, Seventeen Seconds and Faith albums. The very first live gig I went to see was actually The Cure’s Pornography tour when I was about 15. I was playing guitar at the time and had started a band. I became increasingly interested in noise via 23 Skidoo, Einstürzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire, etc. “
This evolution would quickly help lead to an obsession with dub and its deconstructive possibilities. He added: “I was obsessed with dub for a long time having come through the early rock steady, blue beat and reggae scenes and found further routes to deconstruction through jazz and ultimately indigenous music of west Africa, Cuba, Indonesia, India etc. I guess I was searching for authenticity and a musical form of ecstatic abandon. So much of these influences collided in the wake of punk which was a really fertile period of experimentation for many throughout the 80s where the rock n roll rule book was unceremoniously thrown to the fire.”
A voracious reader, he absorbed modernist literature, comparative religion and philosophy, drawing inspiration from thinkers like Alan Watts and Carlos Castaneda. This intellectual curiosity intertwined with his music, created a transcendental narrative. Switching from guitar to bass and percussion, Biswas discovered the angular funk of A Certain Ratio, whose playful deconstructions fueled his hunger for experimental rhythm. Influences like Parliament, The Headhunters and Sly expanded his palette, solidifying his commitment to breaking boundaries. Biswas’s urban London became a canvas for spiritual and rhythmic exploration, setting the foundation for the ecstatic, boundary-pushing soundscapes he would later create as Bedouin Ascent.
By the mid-1980s, technological advances began reshaping Kingsuk Biswas’s approach to music. Affordable analogue gear like the SH-101, TR-606, and TB-303 allowed him to create without a full band or expensive rehearsal spaces. Originally used as a backdrop for industrial funk experiments, these machines soon became central to his work, producing unpredictable, chaotic sounds that teetered on the brink of collapse. Kingsuk talks about his early forays into making more electronic music:
“…I no longer needed a band in tow, set up a drum kit or hire rehearsal space. But what started as an accompaniment for my then industrial funk experiments eventually leapt to the foreground as a hissing, snarling sound in its own right. What I was always looking for was a music on the verge of collapse, dangerously out of hand, perpetually on the edge of failure, but pulling back to reveal unexpected terrain, an open door and perhaps a glimpse of magik.”
Biswas pushed his setup to its limits, layering sequencers, delay lines and drum machines in endless experiments.
He adds: “The networked pre-computer stomp boxes and drum machines could take you there, and then further. In the arpeggiators and sequencers I heard Steve Reich, I heard John Coltrane, I heard Mongo Santamaria. I let them loose for hours on end, feeding back through delay lines, drifting out of time, or locked to my TR-808. The New York phasing minimalism of Reich and Glass had now become the cornerstone of a new music I thought, or at least it had on my bedsit floor tangled in cables, LEDs and FX boxes. “
By 1988, while studying Geology in Wales, Biswas’s experiments mirrored the acid jams and early Detroit and Chicago techno emerging in the UK. Isolated from larger scenes, he recorded jagged, improvisational tracks blending hip-hop, dub, jazz and hardcore influences. Kingsuk talks about Colin Dale discovering his music and how his relationship then started with Rising High and its owner Caspar Pound which eventually, would be the home for Science, Art & Ritual:
“I’d moved back to London in 1990 and gave a cassette to Colin Dale who had a legendary techno show on Kiss FM, right next door to my new University campus on Holloway Road. Colin called me up and said he loved it and was playing it on his Outer Limits segment. This blew my mind because like all my stuff then it was just a scratchy old cassette. I didn’t have much pro gear. There was a lot of proto-jungle, breakbeat, bass & bleep and hardcore stuff in that material and Rising High were interested in releasing it, but I was already moving on and becoming interested in more musically challenging productions. I parked that material but did intend to revisit it sometime. I frustrated Rising High to no end by dropping in with new tapes every few days but having no interest in releasing any of it because I didn’t think it lived up to what I was hearing in my head! Caspar Pound (owner of Rising High) disagreed.”
The creation of Science, Art and Ritual began in 1993, with the artist already established through a series of EPs. Drawing inspiration from his studies in Natural Systems Theory and Complexity, the album became an exploration of relationships between musical elements rather than their linear placement. He applied a compositional approach reminiscent of algorithmic processes, where sounds—whether a 909 hi-hat, a Moog filter, or an 808 kick—interacted within nested sub-sequencies. These interactions created complex, unpredictable patterns, emphasising silence as much as sound. This technique, akin to “painting with shadows”, produced compositions that felt alive, evolving in real time. This process unfolded during a period when digital tools were becoming accessible, albeit limited. Armed with an upgraded Mac, a second-hand Digidesign Sound Tools rig and a modest 1GB hard drive, he recorded live improvisations of percussion, flute and bass. These recordings, often noisy and distorted, were re-sampled, processed and transformed into new forms. The studio became a laboratory where improvisation and sequencing merged, allowing sounds to mutate and grow organically.
Kingsuk spoke about the process behind the project and how the title of the album formed:
“The process of being immersed and engaged in this was at the same time science, and art and also ritual to me, as was all intense creative practice. Long hours spent in the lab, at play, with no particular end in sight. Just time spent, for fun and immersion, and to test and map the boundaries, to peer over the edge; push it to the brink. It was holistic. Science without art lacks humanity, art without ritual can lack attention and clarity. Yet ritual without science lacks purpose and direction. It was about all the elements in alchemy. That could equally apply to Kabbalah, Vedanta or any mystical practice for that matter, which was what inspired the album title.”
The album opens with ‘Ancient Ocean III’, an excellent opening track defined by tribal rhythms, shimmering laser zaps and a whimsical melody that morphs into a bombastic, groundbreaking IDM style. However, never losing the beauty that overarches the entire piece. ‘Transition-R’ follows with an ebbing, crystalline melody that evolves over organic beats, embodying a fluid yet structured interplay of sound. On ‘He Is She’, hip-hop and dub influences take center stage, featuring a slow groove enriched by drum machine bells, toms and record scratches—a forward-looking homage to urban music. ‘Ancient Ocean II’ draws from the artist’s love of classical Indian music, blending intricate tribal IDM beats with a meditative atmosphere.
Kingsuk talks about making of: ‘Ancient II’ and ‘He Is She’:
“My brother helped me on Ancient Ocean II because he had such a great collection of instruments from all over the world. It was a simple setup but pushed to the extremes with sequencing enabled me to layer and rework improv jams in ways that previously were just not possible. I was not particularly precious either – the mixer was overloaded, sounds were noisy and distorted. I slowed tracks down until they were unrecognizable and were ready to take on new forms – a technique I recall Brian Eno doing with a Revox b77 to produce deep sub harmonics. In many ways most of the album was various incarnations of the first track, processed, reprocessed, edited, reinterpreted. It just kept growing and developing virally and the experimentation kept leading onto new pieces. I also played with levels taking the track volume right down on He is She for example to suck the listener in before ramping it back up again. “
‘Lost in Glass’ reflects the album’s era, channeling the ambient and chill-out scenes of the early ’90s. Its lush soundscape and contemplative tone feel timeless. ‘In the Clouds’ serves as a more straightforward representation of the artist’s style, balancing beauty and abstraction with challenging yet cohesive sounds. One of the expanded edition’s addition highlights, ‘Mammon’, is an eerie, sci-fi-inspired piece that evokes the vastness of space, its haunting tones acting as a beacon of otherworldly music.
Kingsuk gives us some interesting insight to the final product and clears up some talk about the differences between the demo, original and these versions on the new expanded package:
“For the CD (original version in 1993) I wrestled to compile and mix all the takes into a final 85 min sequence on my hard drive. But that posed another challenge because I couldn’t cleanly play it out to a DAT in realtime for mastering. It would always just stop part way through or pop or glitch at some point, no matter how many times I tried. Sometimes right at the end. And I’d have to sit and listen to it all the way through to make sure I got a clean dub. Hard disk recording was still in its infancy really and was 70% voodoo, and 10% magic and 100% a pain in the ass. I was almost about to give up. After trying on various setups in various studios, driving people crazy I finally got it in one take. But that just led to final dilemma that I had didn’t have many options to resolve. I delivered an 85min mix, paring things down to the bone, for a format that could only hold 80 mins. I didn’t want to make any more changes and it was hassle enough trying to get just one clean dub out of Opcode Studio Vision. In the mastering studio we ended up running the master at +5% speed to get it onto a glass master. Of all the options this seemed the least undesirable and still faithfully reproduced my track sequence, mix and overall concept. On the vinyl version however the tracks were at the correct speed as on the 30th Anniversary vinyl and digital masters too, all of which I still regarded as the defacto renditions.”
The album’s production embraced imperfection, pushing equipment to its limits. Techniques like slowing tracks to unrecognisable tempos or manipulating volume—such as the dramatic dynamics in ‘He is She’—enhanced tension and drew the listener deeper into its world. These experiments echoed influences like Brian Eno and Mark Stewart, whose methods of distortion and restraint shaped the artist’s approach. With a devout cult fan base there from the start, this new expanded version and re-introduction into the scene supports the artist’s unique vision and efforts further, bridging genres and time with an unparalleled sense of exploration and innovation while gaining new admirers of his works.
Tim Humphrey
Click here to buy your triple vinyl copy of Bedouin Ascent’s Science, Art and Ritual,