Rithma is the musical work of Etienne Stehelin, a goofy spirit from Topanga Canyon, a small community in the hills just north of Los Angeles, California. Etienne has been producing for nearly four years now, and more recently he has found somewhat of a particular style he'd like to call his own. "Music is not life, but life is Music" he might say in attempt to explain that which he seeks to express through all the melodies, rhythm & bass.
Etienne started going out in 1995, just a minute before the L.A. rave scene crashed & burned. The music & people took him to a place he'd been looking for for a long time, and with a businessman father, a musician mother, and many years of Jazz guitar traning, he had grown up around the right ingrediants for a producer. "Maybe i could do this" he thought. Maybe someday he could create magic in the ears of others as he had felt on those special nights. Soon Etienne & his good high school friend Scott Findley started buying gear & formed the "Robot Factory" a very amateur trance experiment. The roots. The beginning. Soon enough some quality gear was bought & the ears had developed a taste for tech-house, and with a few years of experimenting & listening, some decent tunes started being created.

So time passes & Much time was spent giving out tapes & asking for advice & calling people who knew what they were doing & asking for more advice; eventualy Etienne Decided to cut his own record, "Rithma 001" a somewhat trancey, horrible pressing, only twelve were made. So he saved up money & pressed "Rithma 002" which sounded decent & got him some attention with the UCMG crowd. Soon enough Etienne & Scott Findley signed their first release with Fiji Recordings, "Rithma vs. Scott Findley". Since then, Etienne has signed & has releases coming out on Tweekin (SF), Terraform (Denver), Lapdance (a new UCMG label) , and most recently Om Records, creators of the infamous Mushroom Jazz, Afro Mystic & Om Lounge collections.

What an adventure for this kid. Only twenty & already being asked for music by all these ridiculous labels. He considers himself extremely lucky & blessed, & tries not to take for granted the incredible experience of life. Very special this life is for all of us. Remember that. Over the last few years, etienne has found most of his inspiration on the road between L.A., Oregon, Vancouver, & Montana. Roadtripping is his essence, it is where he finds the souls he loves & the places he seeks.

Etienne's influences include: traveling (the school of life), coffee, Miles Davis(especially), Svek, Herbie Hancock, Timothy Leary, John Coltrane, Bob Marley, Terry Lee Brown Jr., DKMA, Kenneth Graham, Jerry Garcia, too many names, Jazz, Bluegrass, Classic Rock,Weed, House, Tom Robbins, House, okay how about Music as a whole. Most especially being outside, Hot sun, Oak trees, mountain biking, hard work/sweat, little towns, big crowds, fresh air, you name it, he loves it. Please open the windows & enjoy the ride.