Hello, F1 circus is in Hockenheim Germany, Vettel's home (just 30km away) Grand Prix. Hamilton made a mess of his first round qualification leaving track whilst trying to corner max speed, the third time his car broke down, luckily overtaking is relatively easy at H so he should be up to fifth after 10 rounds but then the harder part starts Raikonen and Verstappen be undoubtedly be battling 10 sec up front and leading the race will be Vettel going for his first home win. And tomorrow the weather gods might stir up the race too, expect an exiting race.
This is my 5th posting on Steve Roach, it will be the first one this year, Steve is a painter with sound and as such his discography is impressive with well over 120 high quality albums, he keeps himself sharp by working with others who in return lift on his ever increasing status in the world of (tribal) ambient. That said I think i would do the Sundaze fans a disservice if i kept posting his work for months on end, hence you had to wait a year for another month of Steve Roach. It's here now....and in a way we start at the beginning....
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. Drawing from a vast, unique, deeply personal authenticity, his releases cover a wide range of dynamic styles all of which bear his signature voice. For 35 years the boundaries are constantly challenged in his work, ranging in style from pure floating spaces, analog sequencer music, primordial tribal, rhythmic ambient, dark ambient, long-form 'drift ambient,' and avant garde atonal ambient.....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.
In concert, Steve creates transcendent electronic music emerging from an elemental instinctual mode. These events bring together an audience from around the country and as far away as Europe, all looking to experience the on-the-edge experience that erupts in the live setting. This makes Steve's concerts an entirely different experience from the recorded medium. With months of preparation absorbed into his system, evocative soundscapes blend with ecstatic rhythmic sections born from hands-on analog sound creation and sonic shapeshifting. The result is a direct transference of creative energy from the artist through his instruments out to the listener. Live performances are the place where Steve's music thrives, created at the leading edge of now.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Lost Pieces in this collection were composed between 1988-1992. Some have appeared on limited edition multi-artist compilations. Others were not created for any particular project. Instead, they documented and somehow externalized moments of personal transition in ways that only music can do. Often I'd loose track of these pieces shortly after they were recorded. Then, months or even years later, I'd be sifting through boxes of tapes (many left unmarked, a bad habit that continues!) looking for something else and would be surprised to rediscover a piece I had composed in a moment of private inspiration. I would feel a strange sense of shifting as the flood of emotions that originally infused the music would be unleashed once again. Now that these lost pieces have been found, for me they take on a new and interesting life altogether, one that was conceived unconsciously in separate yet interconnected stages over several years." April 1993
This is a great album if you are unaware of where to start with the mass of Steve Roach's releases. It's hard to imagine that a lot of this material never found a place on another release initially, as it contains some of the best material ever recorded by him. During the first four tracks of this release he mixes styles well with floaty ambience, dry tribal beats, and analog sequencer material. From 'Full Moon Prophecy" onward however, he really shines with some of his most atmospheric and deep material ever. Not only that, but I can distinguish sounds that have appeared from different spans of time of recording. Namely tracks that sound like they are from his Structures In Silence, Artifacts, and Desert Solitaire periods. Therefore, it can be enjoyed by experienced Steve Roach listeners who can reflect on different sounds he has visited, or a newer listener can get a good indication of his various 'earlier' styles of making beautiful, deep & relaxing music.
Steve Roach - The Lost Pieces (flac 293mb)
01 Eclipse 3:40
02 After The Dream 6:33
03 Mojave: At The Tree 6:08
04 Since We Are Away 7:45
05 Full Moon Prophecy 10:01
06 Red Shore 4:57
07 Repose 4:51
08 Three Reptiles Wait At The Opening To The Underworld 11:07
09 Expanding Again.. 4:39
10 Closer 9:51
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The liner notes explain that the ancient Greeks believed that somewhere in the world, the gods calmed the storms of winter for two weeks so the descendants of Alcyon, the once human kingfisher, could lay their eggs on still waters. Halcyon Days, the album, is an interpretation -- a mixture of space music and ethnic instruments -- of this mythical event, and not quite as "quiet" as I would imagine these days to be. At any rate, they are not the quiet you'd find on an angel cloud, but the sultry peacefulness (the sound of the saxophone helps here) you'd find at the edge of a swamp. One thing for sure: the storms may stop, but life doesn't. Joining forces on this odyssey are space music maestro Steve Roach, Stephen Kent (didgeridoo, drums and percussion, cello-sintir, and ocarinas), and Kenneth Newby (various "sound shapeshifting" and exotic instruments). The Halcyon world comes to life as rhythms burble on world percussion instruments, didgeridoo drones swirl like mosquitoes or croak like frogs. Space music effects slither like snakes, create eerie mists, buzz in flight, or plummet in delirium. The music is very cohesive and atmospheric; if removed from the context of the legend, most cuts on Halcyon Days are suitable for trance-dance; "Calyx Revelation" is suitable only for trance, period. Very trippy.
Steve Roach (with Stephen Kent and Kenneth Newby) - Halcyon Days (flac 341mb)
01 Halcyon Days 10:20
02 First Day 9:22
03 Rainfrog Dreaming 7:56
04 Snake Brothers 5:52
05 Slow Walk At Stone Wash 9:22
06 Riding The Atlas 5:28
07 Calyx Revelation 8:00
08 Kingfisher Flight 7:00
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Cool, majestic, hypnotic, a recording that seems to be designed to place the grandeur of the universe in between your surround speakers. The music conjured up by Roach for this album consists mainly of sweeping tones, broadly painted onto a reverb-drenched canvas, making this a perfect album for internal games involving mental planetariums, stargazing of the soul. The Magnificent Void is immense, chilly and captivating, musical science fiction that leaves behind a shocking emptiness when the last tone drifts away into the universe.
Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void (flac 335mb)
01 Between The Gray And The Purple 7:42
02 Void Memory One 2:53
03 Infinite Shore 7:47
04 Cloud Of Unknowing 10:38
05 Void Memory Two 3:40
06 Void Memory Three 3:41
07 The Magnificent Void 13:13
08 Altus 20:01
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Some familiar chants open the lead track, "Ascension for Protection," of Cavern of Sirens by Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana (Dirk Serries). There are many tie-ins on that track. Roach recorded Thupten Pema Lama, of the Monks of the Dip Tse Chok Ling Monastery, at Timeroom in November 1995. This is the first of many collaborations between these two and, in many ways, it is their deepest. Both sound artisans are obviously haunted by the primordial demons of ages past – the only way to exorcise those demons is by lighting ceremonial rites composed with whirling dervishes of percussion, synths ground in digital dirt, and the breaking down of barriers between worlds earthen and electronic. Splendidly actualizing this concept is the fifteen minute ritualmusic that is "Hidden Earth and the Shadows Dance," as Roach holds sway with a battery of shakers and digidrums and Vidna caresses dark, turgid silicon somas. The duo then plunges deep into the nether regions of "Middle World Passage," an epic adventure of strange, rattling noises, ganking rubbery drums and vast, infinite synth textures. Make no prehistoric bones about it – the soundscapes residing in this Cavern Of Sirens are perfect to get lost in. It is difficult to rate such excellence other than to say that this album is essential.
Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana - Cavern Of Sirens (flac 418mb)
01 Ascension for Protection 11:27
02 Hidden Earth and the Shadows Dance 15:18
03 Middle World Passage 24:19
04 The Current Below 9:20
05 The Graceful Sky 12:27
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
This is my 5th posting on Steve Roach, it will be the first one this year, Steve is a painter with sound and as such his discography is impressive with well over 120 high quality albums, he keeps himself sharp by working with others who in return lift on his ever increasing status in the world of (tribal) ambient. That said I think i would do the Sundaze fans a disservice if i kept posting his work for months on end, hence you had to wait a year for another month of Steve Roach. It's here now....and in a way we start at the beginning....
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. Drawing from a vast, unique, deeply personal authenticity, his releases cover a wide range of dynamic styles all of which bear his signature voice. For 35 years the boundaries are constantly challenged in his work, ranging in style from pure floating spaces, analog sequencer music, primordial tribal, rhythmic ambient, dark ambient, long-form 'drift ambient,' and avant garde atonal ambient.....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.
In concert, Steve creates transcendent electronic music emerging from an elemental instinctual mode. These events bring together an audience from around the country and as far away as Europe, all looking to experience the on-the-edge experience that erupts in the live setting. This makes Steve's concerts an entirely different experience from the recorded medium. With months of preparation absorbed into his system, evocative soundscapes blend with ecstatic rhythmic sections born from hands-on analog sound creation and sonic shapeshifting. The result is a direct transference of creative energy from the artist through his instruments out to the listener. Live performances are the place where Steve's music thrives, created at the leading edge of now.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The Lost Pieces in this collection were composed between 1988-1992. Some have appeared on limited edition multi-artist compilations. Others were not created for any particular project. Instead, they documented and somehow externalized moments of personal transition in ways that only music can do. Often I'd loose track of these pieces shortly after they were recorded. Then, months or even years later, I'd be sifting through boxes of tapes (many left unmarked, a bad habit that continues!) looking for something else and would be surprised to rediscover a piece I had composed in a moment of private inspiration. I would feel a strange sense of shifting as the flood of emotions that originally infused the music would be unleashed once again. Now that these lost pieces have been found, for me they take on a new and interesting life altogether, one that was conceived unconsciously in separate yet interconnected stages over several years." April 1993
This is a great album if you are unaware of where to start with the mass of Steve Roach's releases. It's hard to imagine that a lot of this material never found a place on another release initially, as it contains some of the best material ever recorded by him. During the first four tracks of this release he mixes styles well with floaty ambience, dry tribal beats, and analog sequencer material. From 'Full Moon Prophecy" onward however, he really shines with some of his most atmospheric and deep material ever. Not only that, but I can distinguish sounds that have appeared from different spans of time of recording. Namely tracks that sound like they are from his Structures In Silence, Artifacts, and Desert Solitaire periods. Therefore, it can be enjoyed by experienced Steve Roach listeners who can reflect on different sounds he has visited, or a newer listener can get a good indication of his various 'earlier' styles of making beautiful, deep & relaxing music.
Steve Roach - The Lost Pieces (flac 293mb)
01 Eclipse 3:40
02 After The Dream 6:33
03 Mojave: At The Tree 6:08
04 Since We Are Away 7:45
05 Full Moon Prophecy 10:01
06 Red Shore 4:57
07 Repose 4:51
08 Three Reptiles Wait At The Opening To The Underworld 11:07
09 Expanding Again.. 4:39
10 Closer 9:51
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The liner notes explain that the ancient Greeks believed that somewhere in the world, the gods calmed the storms of winter for two weeks so the descendants of Alcyon, the once human kingfisher, could lay their eggs on still waters. Halcyon Days, the album, is an interpretation -- a mixture of space music and ethnic instruments -- of this mythical event, and not quite as "quiet" as I would imagine these days to be. At any rate, they are not the quiet you'd find on an angel cloud, but the sultry peacefulness (the sound of the saxophone helps here) you'd find at the edge of a swamp. One thing for sure: the storms may stop, but life doesn't. Joining forces on this odyssey are space music maestro Steve Roach, Stephen Kent (didgeridoo, drums and percussion, cello-sintir, and ocarinas), and Kenneth Newby (various "sound shapeshifting" and exotic instruments). The Halcyon world comes to life as rhythms burble on world percussion instruments, didgeridoo drones swirl like mosquitoes or croak like frogs. Space music effects slither like snakes, create eerie mists, buzz in flight, or plummet in delirium. The music is very cohesive and atmospheric; if removed from the context of the legend, most cuts on Halcyon Days are suitable for trance-dance; "Calyx Revelation" is suitable only for trance, period. Very trippy.
Steve Roach (with Stephen Kent and Kenneth Newby) - Halcyon Days (flac 341mb)
01 Halcyon Days 10:20
02 First Day 9:22
03 Rainfrog Dreaming 7:56
04 Snake Brothers 5:52
05 Slow Walk At Stone Wash 9:22
06 Riding The Atlas 5:28
07 Calyx Revelation 8:00
08 Kingfisher Flight 7:00
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Cool, majestic, hypnotic, a recording that seems to be designed to place the grandeur of the universe in between your surround speakers. The music conjured up by Roach for this album consists mainly of sweeping tones, broadly painted onto a reverb-drenched canvas, making this a perfect album for internal games involving mental planetariums, stargazing of the soul. The Magnificent Void is immense, chilly and captivating, musical science fiction that leaves behind a shocking emptiness when the last tone drifts away into the universe.
Steve Roach - The Magnificent Void (flac 335mb)
01 Between The Gray And The Purple 7:42
02 Void Memory One 2:53
03 Infinite Shore 7:47
04 Cloud Of Unknowing 10:38
05 Void Memory Two 3:40
06 Void Memory Three 3:41
07 The Magnificent Void 13:13
08 Altus 20:01
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Some familiar chants open the lead track, "Ascension for Protection," of Cavern of Sirens by Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana (Dirk Serries). There are many tie-ins on that track. Roach recorded Thupten Pema Lama, of the Monks of the Dip Tse Chok Ling Monastery, at Timeroom in November 1995. This is the first of many collaborations between these two and, in many ways, it is their deepest. Both sound artisans are obviously haunted by the primordial demons of ages past – the only way to exorcise those demons is by lighting ceremonial rites composed with whirling dervishes of percussion, synths ground in digital dirt, and the breaking down of barriers between worlds earthen and electronic. Splendidly actualizing this concept is the fifteen minute ritualmusic that is "Hidden Earth and the Shadows Dance," as Roach holds sway with a battery of shakers and digidrums and Vidna caresses dark, turgid silicon somas. The duo then plunges deep into the nether regions of "Middle World Passage," an epic adventure of strange, rattling noises, ganking rubbery drums and vast, infinite synth textures. Make no prehistoric bones about it – the soundscapes residing in this Cavern Of Sirens are perfect to get lost in. It is difficult to rate such excellence other than to say that this album is essential.
Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana - Cavern Of Sirens (flac 418mb)
01 Ascension for Protection 11:27
02 Hidden Earth and the Shadows Dance 15:18
03 Middle World Passage 24:19
04 The Current Below 9:20
05 The Graceful Sky 12:27
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Most excellent! Many thanks, Rho :)
ReplyDeletePlease Rho upload these albums too. I have heard about Steve Roach before and I love what I listened to from him.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Thank you for this. Roach is amazing for sure.
ReplyDelete