Hello,
Today's Artist is a longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist,a onetime professional motorbike racer born 1955 in La Mesa, California, drew on the beauty and power of the earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. ....N'Joy
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A longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Roach drew on the beauty and power of the Earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. Born in California in 1955, Roach -- inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Vangelis -- taught himself to play synthesizer at the age of 20. Debuting in 1982 with the album Now, his early work was quite reminiscent of his inspirations, but with 1984's Structures from Silence, his music began taking enormous strides. The album's expansive and mysterious atmosphere was partly inspired by the natural beauty of the southwestern U.S. Subsequent works, including 1986's three-volume Quiet Music series honed Roach's approach, his dense, swirling textures and hypnotic rhythms akin to environmental sound sculptures.
In 1988, inspired by the Peter Weir film The Last Wave, Roach journeyed to the Australian outback, with field recordings of aboriginal life inspiring his acknowledged masterpiece, the double-album Dreamtime Return. A year later, he teamed with percussionist Michael Shrieve and guitarist David Torn for The Leaving Time, an experiment in ambient jazz. After relocating to the desert outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, Roach established his own recording studio, Timeroom. In the years to follow, he grew increasingly prolific, creating both as a solo artist and in tandem with acts including Robert Rich, Michael Stearns, Jorge Reyes, and Kevin Braheny -- in all, he recorded close to two-dozen major works in the '90s alone, all of them located at different points on the space-time continuum separating modern technology and primitive music.
His album roster from that decade includes Strata (1991), Artifacts (1994), Well of Souls (1995), Amplexus (1997), and Dust to Dust (1998). Early Man was released on Projekt in early 2001, followed by one of his many collaborations with Vidna Obmana, Innerzone. Throughout the remainder of the 2000s, Roach remained extremely prolific. His release schedule included the Projekt titles Trance Spirits (with Jeffrey Fayman) and the quadruple-disc Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces, Spirit Dome and Somewhere Else (with Obmana), Fever Dreams, Mantram, and Nada Terma (with Byron Metcalf and Mark Seelig), and the ongoing Immersion series, Arc of Passion, and Stream of Thought (with Erik Wøllo). He also self-released several titles on his own through Timeroom Editions. Over the next decade, Roach would show no signs of slowing as he continued with a non-stop slew of new material under his own name, as well as collaborations and soundtrack work. Though new volumes of work appeared at a clip of more than three albums per year, standouts included more collaborations with Byron Metcalf, 2013's Future Flows, 2014's disparate releases of arid road trip music on The Desert Collection and ambient explorations of mortality and humanity on The Delicate Forever. Roach began constructing an extensive analog modular synthesizer system in 2014, and in 2015, the album Skeleton Keys was composed entirely using this setup. In 2016, Roach released two full-lengths with Robert Logan (the more rhythmic Biosonic and the serene drone album Second Nature), as well as solo efforts This Place to Be and Shadow of Time.
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Originally released in 1984, Structures from Silence turned out to be one of Roach's most successful and acclaimed releases over time; widely considered his breakout album where he found his own voice, it even made a list of Top Ten releases published in a magazine dedicated to yoga. Whether a listener uses it for that purpose or not, it does have to be said that Structures from Silence is a lovely effort indeed. Its chief allure remains its transcendence of time -- while one can surmise, based on the sound of the record, its early-'80s vintage, it is not an obviously dated album in and of itself. Though Roach's approach changed and explored many new directions, there's a core aesthetic still at work, that of contrasting a variety of loops and repeated motifs with subtle melodic exploration. The interweaving of the two approaches, to the point where it's never quite clear what predominates at what point -- especially on opening track "Reflections in Suspension" -- makes for music both cyclic and open-ended. In the original liner notes, Roach himself spoke of hearing and working with the music for months before recording it; certainly, the depth of detail, from shimmering high notes and tones to semi-orchestral synth sweeps and low, purring drones, makes for lovely listening. All three tracks are equally worth hearing, but the longest is the title track itself; a tour de force. Spanning nearly half-an-hour's length, it's easily the most spacious of the compositions, with the exchange between structure and free-flow more pronounced but still making a fine, evocative listen. The influence of groups like Tangerine Dream -and Vangelis is still audible, but Structures from Silence is its own notable peak, the first of many astonishing highlights for Roach.
Steve Roach - Structures from Silence (flac 228mb)
01 Reflections In Suspension 16:40
02 Quiet Friend 13:20
03 Structures From Silence 29:00
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Quiet Music is the essence of pure, meditative ambience. Steve Roach has always been a visionary performer; his work defines 'elegant futurism.' He released these on cassette in 1986, and it remains in the forefront of introspective minimalism. This series set the stage for all minimalists to follow. He was one of the first to demonstrate that ambient minimalism does not have to be dark, that it can be bright and hopeful without becoming maudlin or too new age. This is groundbreaking space music from an epic and legendary performer. He is peerless in his corner of the perpendicular universe. Much of this music began as a series of early-'80s recordings commissioned by healing-arts programs and later used for everything from personal meditation to birthing music. Today these pieces still stand as a cornerstone in body-work, yoga, and healing therapies.
The enduring nature of this music is even more significent when placed in the context of the '80s climate from which it originated. "In looking at the arc of my music, nearly 30 years after creating Quiet Music," Roach reflects, "I still feel an unbroken connection to this same inner breath and pulse I was discovering within myself and my creative life at that time. Even with everything that was going on in the early '80s -- musically, culturally, politically - this music came to exist in its own dimension, outside of that time, separate from the day-to-day climate in which I was surrounded. I was yearning to express a timeless and universal soul-tone, a safe haven within the music. I had tapped into a reliable way to access this quiet repose at several favorite getaways in nature which was the main influence of this music."
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Quiet Music, Vol. 1 is the first cassette and it is beautiful, serene music. Roach surrounds nature samples with very melodic, almost symphonic synth atmospheres and bright drones. This is pastoral ambience at its finest. While Roach has gone a different direction in the late '90s and the new millennium, this is still treasured music. Careful listeners will hear the distant echoes of this style in his tribal ambience. Many artists have followed Roach, but few have caught up to him
Steve Roach - Quiet Music I (flac 254mb)
101 The Green Place, Part I 31:06
102 The Green Place, Part II 30:20
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Collection of pieces created in respect for silence between 1983 and 1986. It is the slowest and most textural edition of the Quiet Music series.
Steve Roach - Quiet Music II (flac 243mb)
201 See Things 5:48
202 Towards The Blue 3:20
203 Something In Tears 5:20
204 A Few More Moments 13:08
205 Air And Light 32:05
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Quiet Music, Vol. 3 is the essence of pure, meditative ambience. Steve Roach has always been a visionary performer; his work defines "elegant futurism." He released this on cassette in 1986 and it remains in the forefront of introspective minimalism. This series set the stage for all minimalists to follow. He was one of the first to demonstrate that ambient minimalism does not have to be dark, that it can be bright and hopeful without becoming maudlin or too new age. This is groundbreaking space music from an epic and legendary performer. He is peerless in his corner of the perpendicular universe.
Steve Roach - Quiet Music III (flac 235mb)
301 Dreaming And Sleep 21:51
302 Quiet Canon 7:51
303 Sleep And Dreaming 30:13
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Today's Artist is a longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist,a onetime professional motorbike racer born 1955 in La Mesa, California, drew on the beauty and power of the earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. ....N'Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
A longstanding leader in contemporary electronic music, composer and multi-instrumentalist Steve Roach drew on the beauty and power of the Earth's landscapes to create lush, meditative soundscapes influential on the emergence of ambient and trance. Born in California in 1955, Roach -- inspired by the music of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Vangelis -- taught himself to play synthesizer at the age of 20. Debuting in 1982 with the album Now, his early work was quite reminiscent of his inspirations, but with 1984's Structures from Silence, his music began taking enormous strides. The album's expansive and mysterious atmosphere was partly inspired by the natural beauty of the southwestern U.S. Subsequent works, including 1986's three-volume Quiet Music series honed Roach's approach, his dense, swirling textures and hypnotic rhythms akin to environmental sound sculptures.
In 1988, inspired by the Peter Weir film The Last Wave, Roach journeyed to the Australian outback, with field recordings of aboriginal life inspiring his acknowledged masterpiece, the double-album Dreamtime Return. A year later, he teamed with percussionist Michael Shrieve and guitarist David Torn for The Leaving Time, an experiment in ambient jazz. After relocating to the desert outskirts of Tucson, Arizona, Roach established his own recording studio, Timeroom. In the years to follow, he grew increasingly prolific, creating both as a solo artist and in tandem with acts including Robert Rich, Michael Stearns, Jorge Reyes, and Kevin Braheny -- in all, he recorded close to two-dozen major works in the '90s alone, all of them located at different points on the space-time continuum separating modern technology and primitive music.
His album roster from that decade includes Strata (1991), Artifacts (1994), Well of Souls (1995), Amplexus (1997), and Dust to Dust (1998). Early Man was released on Projekt in early 2001, followed by one of his many collaborations with Vidna Obmana, Innerzone. Throughout the remainder of the 2000s, Roach remained extremely prolific. His release schedule included the Projekt titles Trance Spirits (with Jeffrey Fayman) and the quadruple-disc Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces, Spirit Dome and Somewhere Else (with Obmana), Fever Dreams, Mantram, and Nada Terma (with Byron Metcalf and Mark Seelig), and the ongoing Immersion series, Arc of Passion, and Stream of Thought (with Erik Wøllo). He also self-released several titles on his own through Timeroom Editions. Over the next decade, Roach would show no signs of slowing as he continued with a non-stop slew of new material under his own name, as well as collaborations and soundtrack work. Though new volumes of work appeared at a clip of more than three albums per year, standouts included more collaborations with Byron Metcalf, 2013's Future Flows, 2014's disparate releases of arid road trip music on The Desert Collection and ambient explorations of mortality and humanity on The Delicate Forever. Roach began constructing an extensive analog modular synthesizer system in 2014, and in 2015, the album Skeleton Keys was composed entirely using this setup. In 2016, Roach released two full-lengths with Robert Logan (the more rhythmic Biosonic and the serene drone album Second Nature), as well as solo efforts This Place to Be and Shadow of Time.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Originally released in 1984, Structures from Silence turned out to be one of Roach's most successful and acclaimed releases over time; widely considered his breakout album where he found his own voice, it even made a list of Top Ten releases published in a magazine dedicated to yoga. Whether a listener uses it for that purpose or not, it does have to be said that Structures from Silence is a lovely effort indeed. Its chief allure remains its transcendence of time -- while one can surmise, based on the sound of the record, its early-'80s vintage, it is not an obviously dated album in and of itself. Though Roach's approach changed and explored many new directions, there's a core aesthetic still at work, that of contrasting a variety of loops and repeated motifs with subtle melodic exploration. The interweaving of the two approaches, to the point where it's never quite clear what predominates at what point -- especially on opening track "Reflections in Suspension" -- makes for music both cyclic and open-ended. In the original liner notes, Roach himself spoke of hearing and working with the music for months before recording it; certainly, the depth of detail, from shimmering high notes and tones to semi-orchestral synth sweeps and low, purring drones, makes for lovely listening. All three tracks are equally worth hearing, but the longest is the title track itself; a tour de force. Spanning nearly half-an-hour's length, it's easily the most spacious of the compositions, with the exchange between structure and free-flow more pronounced but still making a fine, evocative listen. The influence of groups like Tangerine Dream -and Vangelis is still audible, but Structures from Silence is its own notable peak, the first of many astonishing highlights for Roach.
Steve Roach - Structures from Silence (flac 228mb)
01 Reflections In Suspension 16:40
02 Quiet Friend 13:20
03 Structures From Silence 29:00
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The enduring nature of this music is even more significent when placed in the context of the '80s climate from which it originated. "In looking at the arc of my music, nearly 30 years after creating Quiet Music," Roach reflects, "I still feel an unbroken connection to this same inner breath and pulse I was discovering within myself and my creative life at that time. Even with everything that was going on in the early '80s -- musically, culturally, politically - this music came to exist in its own dimension, outside of that time, separate from the day-to-day climate in which I was surrounded. I was yearning to express a timeless and universal soul-tone, a safe haven within the music. I had tapped into a reliable way to access this quiet repose at several favorite getaways in nature which was the main influence of this music."
xxxxx
Quiet Music, Vol. 1 is the first cassette and it is beautiful, serene music. Roach surrounds nature samples with very melodic, almost symphonic synth atmospheres and bright drones. This is pastoral ambience at its finest. While Roach has gone a different direction in the late '90s and the new millennium, this is still treasured music. Careful listeners will hear the distant echoes of this style in his tribal ambience. Many artists have followed Roach, but few have caught up to him
Steve Roach - Quiet Music I (flac 254mb)
101 The Green Place, Part I 31:06
102 The Green Place, Part II 30:20
xxxxx
Collection of pieces created in respect for silence between 1983 and 1986. It is the slowest and most textural edition of the Quiet Music series.
Steve Roach - Quiet Music II (flac 243mb)
201 See Things 5:48
202 Towards The Blue 3:20
203 Something In Tears 5:20
204 A Few More Moments 13:08
205 Air And Light 32:05
xxxxx
Quiet Music, Vol. 3 is the essence of pure, meditative ambience. Steve Roach has always been a visionary performer; his work defines "elegant futurism." He released this on cassette in 1986 and it remains in the forefront of introspective minimalism. This series set the stage for all minimalists to follow. He was one of the first to demonstrate that ambient minimalism does not have to be dark, that it can be bright and hopeful without becoming maudlin or too new age. This is groundbreaking space music from an epic and legendary performer. He is peerless in his corner of the perpendicular universe.
Steve Roach - Quiet Music III (flac 235mb)
301 Dreaming And Sleep 21:51
302 Quiet Canon 7:51
303 Sleep And Dreaming 30:13
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Oh! Most excellent! Thank you, Rho.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rho. My education continues.
ReplyDeletehi Rho, I missed this Steve Roach post first time around - any chance of a re-up? thanks
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHello, good sir!
I didn't know Steve Roach! It sounds amazing!! Thank you very much for this post.
By the way, could you reupload the albums to FLAC? I listened to them on Youtube.
Thank you, Rho!
ReplyDeletePlease reup the Quiet series too of this prolific and inspiring artist.
Thank you very much.