Rik is an innovative musician who plays acoustic and electric guitar, piano, keys and numerous indigenous flutes over the percussive sound of his stomp box. Since early 2005 Rik has been performing with Marie-Josée, a Métis multi instrumentalist who adds upright and fretless bass, keys, mandolin and percussion. The duo performs with a revolving line up of drummers/percussionists to produce their full-bodied, indie folk-pop. Since 1996 Rik has gained national recognition as a captivating performer, articulate songwriter and artistic activist. Uptown magazine described Rik as 'a thoughtful poet with a gift for words, and ‘the consummate art experience, absolutely worth checking out.’ Starting out as a featured songwriter and performer on five internationally released compilation CDs allowed Rik to work with a number of amazing producers and established songwriters at the formative stage of his career. For the last 8 years Rik has toured constantly across Canada, U.S., with additional tours to U.K and Europe. He has produced four full-length independent CDs including his latest CD ‘now is the winter of our discontent’ released in 2006. A move to Winnipeg in 1997 inspired Rik to start Tribe of One, an artist collective that combined music, dance and visual art into each performance. In 1999 the Department of Foreign Affairs sent Tribe of One to war-torn Kosovo to participate in a United Nations benefit event, hosted by Vanessa Redgrave, featuring fellow Canadian Bruce Cockburn. That experience has inspired Rik’s work as an artist and activist at home and abroad ever since. Recently Rik was the featured musical guest and 'sh*t-disturbing' panelist for 24 episodes of Free TV; a nationally broadcast pop-culture television program, and has begun producing for other Manitoba recording artists including Karla Adolphe's debut CD, 'Come Home.'