Background

Alex Ruis' main perspective on music is focused on its influence on the mind.

Ruis likes composure and to harmonize from there.

Musical perspective development

Born in Amsterdam, since his teenage years, he has sought ways to more fully represent a world of freedom and equal rights in music. In 2017 he found a way in free counterpoint, which has been used in music for many centuries. To his surprise, relatively few composers who are easy to listen to today, had made a real effort to employ "voices" as simultaneously audible, equivalent melodies. Equivalence on the level that can occasionally make you wonder which tune you should really be listening to! 

Marija from Beograd (1989) is his first completed composition and already contains the characteristic tension between stylish synchronous melodies that you will not find in any other music. Meanwhile, he composes music for various occasions.

Musical influences

He grew up in an environment where one genre does not preclude the other. His music is also difficult to associate with any particular movement, genre or artist. He seems to listen to music by others and then process it in his own way to create something that "doesn't look like anything". Presumably this is due to his perhaps unique approach to voice leading. Musical influences range roughly from the English virginalist Gibbons (1583) to the 1970s Dutch rock band Finch. A small sample of the numerous composers who undoubtedly influenced him is Albeniz, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Couperin, Falla, Grieg, Handel, Joplin, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Rameau, Scarlatti, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and more recently Einaudi, Fogerty, Gilmour, Glass, Joel, John, Lennon, McCartney, Parsons, Simon and Waters. Not being mentioned is not trivial, but less aware!

Performance

He immediately realized that if he did not start performing his works himself, they would surely go unnoticed. An idea that led to him becoming more proficient at playing the piano. This is probably why he composes mainly for this instrument.