Steve Roach -- the endlessly meditative thread

This thread title made me think perhaps you made a typo and meant Steve Reich. But I guess not. So, I have nothing to add, except that thrilling anecdote. As you were.

There's a ton of Steve Reich threads, so search and revive!

steve roach can't be new age because his music sounds like sitting in a black hole for 3 hours

his artwork doesn't help though :/

my favorite is "mystic chords and sacred spaces"

http://www.steveroach.com/store/store.php?item=247

The new one, Immersion: Three, is kinda mindblowing even for him -- never heard something so dedicated to being furniture music, endless drift and as Cutty says black hole listening all at once.

I also recommend the Mystic Chords 4CD, Roach in beatless ambient mode. Haven't heard the Vidna Obmana collaborations but I have two interesting ones:

In Trance Spirits (with Jeffrey Fayman, Robert Fripp and Momodou Kah) they add busy African drumming to the spacey soundscapes and the effect is great, smooth and droning.

Blood Machine (with Vir Unis) is also very good, computer beats they call "fractal" for some reason. Modern sound and kind of tribal, this actually sounds closer to Trance Spirits than any other Roach I've heard.

I've hardly heard everything but

80's high point = Structures From Silence which is sort of everything that was good about new age -- if the digital synth textures sometimes seem a little simple, they really can be calming. I hated this stuff as a teenager in the 80's compared to trickier darker industrial or classic ambient or the more detailed textures of the Eno records, but this record's aged well. after his earlier sequencer-based albums that did a good job mining the post-Tangerine Dream lots, this was the transitional one where he turned off all the rhythms and went for duration, the last track is 30 minutes and I often just leave that one looping

then comes a whole host of tribal & slow rhythm records, aboriginal influences, peaked by Dreamtime Return which I remember not being my thing at all due to the melodies, flutes & indian percussion -- this was the soundtrack of a thousand head shops, crystal stores & california yoga retreats in the 80's, and a lot of other really frighteningly carefree scenes, and I skipped the next batch of followup albums. but I've been meaning to check it out again since Projekt reissued it.

then in 96 I was hanging out with Mr. Hate on his KFJC radio show and he segued out of a Zoviet-France track into something astoundingly deep, and my jaw dropped when he said it was Steve Roach -- that's Magnificent Void and it's a breakthrough record crossing over 70's/80's Hearts of Space & synth music with 80's ambient industrial, hugely influential and I keep coming back to it

he's very prolific and some albums sound samey, and some of the attempts to integrate the darkwave synths with the tribal rhythm stuff is not for me, but I picked up Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces when Cutty started dropping it on listening lists and it was a good call, he's clearly been slowly working on the sound & hasn't petered out -- many points for keeping it up going on 30 years later, even though if you like him, there were a lot of interesting records in this genre

would very much appreciate calls on some of the other records

the "sleep concerts" are more pioneered by / associated with Robert Rich in the early 80's than Steve Roach. Rich's albums tend to stay on the darker side and his Stalker with Lustmord is also a total classic & I'm curious to hear Somnium - http://www.starsend.org/Somnium.html

& if you like both Ligeti & Magnificent Void I recommend Roland Kayn

Roland Kayn

I have two of Roach's collaborations with Robert Rich -- Strata and Soma -- both of which I have come back to many times over the years. They aren't out in deep space like The Magnificent Void, but they repay attention and inattention equally well.

I also like Roach's Quiet Music, which makes a good hangover soundtrack.

I agree his music can be samey, but considering what he's doing, that may be one of the reasons it's effective.

i often wonder what he uses to make this music--would probably ruin it for me if i found out

i have this one:

http://www.steveroach.com/Music/discography.php?albumID=66

and used it for months as my sleep music, which it is perfect for (except the one track that has some tribal drumming). i think the liners say he used an e-bowed guitar for most of the sounds. i owned an e-bow at one point but never got it to sound like that. he's good at smearing the edge of sounds with reverb

Structures From Silence is a total classic.

revive! I don't own a lot of ambient music, but I've been listening to Tangerine Dream's Phaedra a lot lately and decided I need to rectify this situation. descriptions of Roach's music make it sound right up my alley, but I'm just wondering which of his eight million albums to start with. so far the frontrunners seem to be Structures From Silence, The Magnificent Void, and Mystic Chords (which, incidentally, boasts one of the most endearingly awful reviews I've ever read on AMG); anything else I should be considering?

Streams & Currents is the only Roach album ive been able to get into. sounds nothing like Phaedra though!

Roach's shamanic rituals take listeners deeper into the zone. The psyche is lost in the realms of this bottomless pit, this cavern of the surreal. There are no impossible worlds on this journey. In the realms of nothingness, deep listeners see everything. In seeing everything, listeners gather knowledge. The ritual continues to begin and begins to continue.

lol

Thankfully not one of the reviews I've done of him. (I'm sure those are endearingly awful too.)

Anyway, Structures is a keeper, and I might suggest Early Man as well, plus any of the Immersion discs.

Streams & Currents is the only Roach album ive been able to get into. sounds nothing like Phaedra though!

-- ☪, Thursday, July 5, 2007 4:12 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Bernard, I've been into this stuff recently too (I'm loving TD's Phaedra, Ricochet, and Stratosfear right now) and have been meaning to pick up some Steve Roach. From what I hear, the ones you mention seem to be the most frequently recommended Roach albums.

On a different note, I don't know if you listen to much internet radio, but there are two stations that play a fair amount of Roach's music (along with similar stuff by Robert Rich, Vidna Obnama, Pete Namlook -- new agey but a little darker ambient stuff): Soma FM's the Drone Zone and the Detroit-based Paxahau. Both are accessible through iTunes radio listings (under the "ambient" tag, I think) or from their sites. Paxahau has some streaming problems occasionally and can get a little choppy, but they play some pretty cool stuff.

Also, I'm sure you're into Eno already but if not, an obvious pick is Ambient 4: On Land. It has some great stuff on it that fits in well with Roach's darker stuff.

I actually don't own any Eno. I have some Harold Budd that I enjoy, so I was thinking of getting one of their collaborations as a good Eno starting point, but somehow I keep putting it off.

get The Plateaux of Mirror right now.

music 4 airports > on land

yes

no

I love Music for Airports, but I find On Land a lot more interesting. Maybe for a nice, calming ambient album MfA works better, but On Land has this uneasiness to it that I find pretty fascinating -- it's so wonderfully dark and eerie.

i've given 'dreamtime return' a listen to tonight. i thought the first half of it was godly, then, i don't know. . . the second half just kind of went nowhere for me. i know i'll have to give this another listen or two, but if that's what i just got from this album right now, could anybody tell me if i should seek out anything else he's done? i mean, i really do enjoy this kind of shiftless new age-y ambience, but that did become a bit trying after a while. maybe it was my own fault for just sitting down and taking it all in at once?

can be easy to overdose on this stuff, though enough of Roach's records are different to justify owning several (of the dozens)

it's always time to listen to tod dockstader's 'aerial 1' again, though it was composed decades after roach hit his stride, which is a big part of the reason I learned to <3 steve roach, time is on his side

get The Plateaux of Mirror right now.

and then get The Pearl

do not pass Go, do not collect $200

Well what a coincidence - I've been listening to a lot of Steve Roach recently. I can't say I'd recommend any more than any other (that's helpful of me isn't it) but I will say you can really do some serious zoning out to it and that's fine by me.

His latest on Projekt, Dynamic Stillness, has one of the darkest sounding beginnings I've heard from him yet. Pretty dramatic statement of purpose (and matched by the artwork, which like the music makes me think a bit of Thomas Köner's work, if more by association).

Count me as a fan, primarily of Roach's 4th World ambient side. This album, in particular, is tremendously effective at evoking amelodic twilight rituals in the late Pleistocene, with much amanita muscaria:

Steve Roach - Origins (1993)
http://img.digitroc.com/cd/569/L145141.jpg

It's sorta lost amongst his mountain of releases and collaborations, but to me this is the album where he achieved exactly the production ambiance he was aiming at post-Dreamtime Return. About of a third of his albums since have been variations on its formula.

When I hear Roach's name, I always think of those terrible AMG writers who end every review with: "This is essential e-music."

Ran across a box of old tapes I recorded off the radio from when I was in high school. Most of them were things like the Dr. Demento show, KLOS' "The Seventh Day" (seven albums in their entirety!), but I had a couple tapes of KSPC's electronic music show - one of shows featured most of Roach's album Traveller. Definitely wears its Klaus Schulze influence on its sleeve, but it's a tremendous album.

If it's the droney side of Roach you're looking for, check out Robert Rich, especially "Trances/Drones." I drift off to that nearly as often as Budd and/or Eno.

Also, Jeff Greinke's "Cities in Fog"--music inspired by late night walks in the industrial outskirts of Seattle and the drone of trucks on distant highways at 3 a.m.

I've listened to a good amount of Steve Roach and one I just got off emusic called "Life Sequence" from 2003 is one of the best. It is kind of a modern return to the rolling German 70s style of repetitive rolling sequencer music that Schulze and Tangerine Dream would do and Roach did earlier in his career except with modern production sounds.

It is really excellent.

absolutely the best music for driving around in southern california thinkin about your LIFE. for real. not bad for doing so in other states either but A+++ for doin this in california.

my favorite one for the last two years has been "Immersion: One" -- his first one where it's basically just an absolutely motionless pad, no chords changes, no events, nothing happens or changes for 73:16 -- I bought Two & Three as well, it's the same approach but I can't make it all the way through those, but One is a thing

I tried 'Dreamtime Return' again last year and it's still a little too glossy for me, when I try to sleep to it I get worn down instead of relaxed, it's almost like there's -too much- going on in it. still listening to Karma Moffett's 'Golden Bowls of Compassion' about every single day.

you know what needs a reissue? http://www.discogs.com/Geoffrey-Chandler-Starscapes/release/664130 -- recorded after hours at Orban in 1980

Structures from Silence impressed me when I was previewing it on iTunes. Actually, I'm a little pissed right now that so little of his stuff is on Spotify and MOG. I just wanna be like, "People, services like these are what your music is made for!"

you know what needs a reissue? http://www.discogs.com/Geoffrey-Chandler-Starscapes/release/664130 -- recorded after hours at Orban in 1980

Recorded and mixed at Orban Recording, Menlo Park, California using a Moog synthesizer with extensive outboard processing equipment, including custom multiple-delay-line analog time-base process, custom voltage-controlled narrowband and wideband frequency shifters, parametric equalizer and reverberation. Mixed through the Orban Stereo Matrix, which creates stereo space and depth effects.

I bought Structures From Silence today on iTunes -- I'm a huge sucker for endlessly shifting analog pads. Sounds to me based on the articles I've read the last few weeks that the guy is an Oberheim Xpander ninja of sorts -- this record would seem to be evidence of that.

I've had a bit harder of a time digging into The Magnificent Void tho I definitely appreciate it for its...emptiness. This is one that actually is on Spotify so I'd like to give it a few more chances.

Another I've poked around on iTunes with is Empetus -- one of his more Berlin-ish sequencer outings from the mid-80s. The reissue has another CD of long sequencer tracks he did in 1982. Clips make it sound good -- presumably on his ARP 2600.

Apparently if you buy CDs from his site he'll apparently autograph them! Not sure that's enough to make me pile yet more CDs into my house -- but I'd still like to hear more.

A healthy approach.

Cool piece on the 30th anniversary of Structures:

http://m.tucsonweekly.com/tucson/celebrating-the-silences/Content?oid=4074680

And here's my own on same!

http://www.wonderingsound.com/review/steve-roach-structures-silence-30th-anniversary-deluxe-remastered-edition/

Good piece, Ned.

Thoughts on the two other discs? Liner notes?

I admit that I haven't yet quite *gotten* Roach's immersive thing just yet – and that part of what I love about this record is that it has layers upon layers of what is, at the end of the day, a distinctively Oberheim sound.

The original edit mentions the extra two discs more -- also lovely but, I think enjoyably and appropriately, different from the original; he didn't try and recreate the sound but sought to explore the same themes from his point of view from where he more currently stands.

Been listening to my (older) Projekt re-release of Structures from Silence and wondering if it is worth ordering the deluxe edition or just snagged some other Roach back catalog stuff I've missed. I get enough shit for buying more than one Steve Roach album, imagine if they find out I'm buying the same one twice. Actually it won't surprise anyone at this point.

Part of me thinks, "Gee, I really love SfS, I wish he recorded more stuff like it" – which it course makes me think I should buy the set as well...

New tracks not really like SfS at all, instantly spotable as recent output.

I got a copy of 'Dynamic Stillness' last year at the Hearts of Space festival in San Rafael and it's solid recent Roach, same textures as the Immersions but with much more in the way of slow harmonic changes & melodies.

Been listening to a lot of Jorge Reyes recently and have just gotten around to the two Suspended Memories collaborations with Roach. Maybe a little less deep than Reyes on his own but still pretty great.

I have his iPhone app

I got that triple CD a couple years ago or was it a quadruple

fuck yes to Steve Roach

That Hearts and Space festival was called Ambicon 2013. Rad.

looks like Ambicon 2014's in Helsinski :(

Your (free to download, or send him a few bucks for it) Blood Moon soundtrack:

http://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/bloodmoon-rising

Future Flows from a few years back was available for free until a few days ago:

https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/future-flows

I usually grab them when I get an email about the free ones. This one was quite good I thought – pure electronic spaciness.

Steve Roach is just plugged in. Following him for a few years, it's pretty astounding how much music he creates. He's not just doing 45 minutes and out in a club either, the guy is like let's do a three day getaway and play the entire time.

There are descriptions that the guy will setup sequences in a room and just keep them running over and over. Every now and then he wanders in and changes the sequence and then moves on to working on something else while the sequence just keeps moving.

He's like an old jazz guy in that he does alot of jam records with other artists. They get into a room, hit record and out of the session comes a record.

Yeah in terms of consistency as well as range within the form I'd place him among my favorite musicians now.

Been listening to lots of the deep void stuff -- Mystic Chords, BLOODMOON RISING 1+3, Future Flows. Another Bandcamp freebie he released a few years ago, Sigh of Ages, is a bit more along the lines of Structures from Silence -- less black hole emptiness and more cascading analog textures using ARP String Ensemble. I like it.

Feel like seeing this guy live would be a pretty great (three day) experience. How often does he venture out of his desert fortress?

In the early 1980s, KSPC in Claremont used to have a late-Sunday night electronic music show. Listened to it all the time - I remember hearing Traveller on it when it first came out and to me it just obvious that Roach was resolutely looking outward and not turning around. His recent work has just been outstanding. Would love to go to one of these desert shows.

ILM road trip!

Sigh of Ages is pretty amazing - a lot more movement than Structures but a pretty incredible vibe

I mentioned this over on the Frippertronics thread ... but it's actually maybe a bit more relevant to this one. I've been listening to a ton of Fripp's "Soundscapes" recordings the last several days -- less charitably, they could be described as the digital descendent of Frippertronics. But they actually share a lot in common with Roach's space void music (one reason I suspect the two collaborated) -- big, swelling things that go on for a long, long time and put you in a really different listening space. And the more I listen to them, the more I really like the textures Fripp creates.

Like Roach, Fripp has recorded far more of this stuff than he could ever hope to release in a physical package, so he's taken advantage of putting this music online -- in his case on DGM Live. There are some good freebies (some of which sound a little like Fripp's ode to Eno's Neroli album) but one of the better (and more Roach-y) ones to pay for is his concert at the World Trade Center in November, 2000 -- there are several really long pieces that just build and build. Can be found here: http://www.dgmlive.com/archive.htm?artist=14&show=925

New releases on Bandcamp, and he's making this one name-your-price for the next couple of days:

https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/fade-to-gray

Grabbed it, haven't listened yet.

For those who are interested, Roach did a nice Q&A with the gear sluts over at Gearslutz in September. Covers lots of technical questions as well as some philosophical ones:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/q-steve-roach/

Hey, new interview with the man on Bandcamp:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/02/08/steve-roach-interview/

Great to see -- a little jealous I didn't think to pitch one earlier!

And as it turns out -- did a really great interview with the man for RBMA. It'll be running soon, will post here when it does!

His surprise birthday release earlier this month, The Passing, is yet another fantastic effort. The man's quality control in combination with his rate of releases is just astonishing.

Oh nice! I will keep an eye out for it.

Still think we need an ILM Desert Road Trip to see this guy...

looking forward to your interview ned. amazing you were able to keep your composure. i would've been like "uh, so.... do you like voids *twirls phone cord around finger*"

Hahah. One of the easiest interviews I've ever done -- gave very long, thoughtful answers on some big questions about his work. And if I had more time I could have asked a lot more (really wanted to get into his collaborative process, since he's worked with so many people).

shh i'm trying to keep up the illusion that when steve roach opens his mouth a pure and endless sound issues from it

And having promised, here's my interview with the man. Easily one of my favorite pieces I've ever done.

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2017/03/steve-roach-interview?linkId=35319969

Nice interview! I was hoping he was a relaxed sort of guy.

Yeah, no airs at all, just happily talking away.

i'm shuffling steve roach on spotify now, don't think this guy's ever released a genuine dud. i only have Structures From Silence and Quiet Music. The former is the original CD release...how's the remastered special edition?

i'm always tempted to buy more whenever I'm at Amoeba but his section takes up about 2% of the store, it's a little overwhelming.

Hey that's one reason why the Bandcamp sites are handy, you can at least sample away. But I don't blame you for being overwhelmed! Both on this thread and in the article I mentioned a few faves so if I had to do a starter five beyond those two:

Dreamtime Return
Dynamic Stillness
Sigh of Ages
Immersion
Dust To Dust (with Roger King)

PLENTY of others but I think that gives a real sense of strengths.

And having mentioned said sites:

http://steveroach.bandcamp.com/

https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/

Plus plenty of sampling via his own site:

http://steveroach.com/store/

http://steveroach.com/store/store.php?query=timeroom&details=y

thanks! looks like i picked the wrong week to keep to my music budget.

somewhat curiously (to me at least) on his spotify page his most "popular" tracks are five tracks from The Magnificent Void.

only bc he's released however many albums and that's the one the listening public on spotify is gravitating towards.

Oh and re: remastered Structures From Silence, I had this to say a while back:

http://www.wonderingsound.com/review/steve-roach-structures-silence-30th-anniversary-deluxe-remastered-edition/

The Delicate Forever is my current favorite.

You can get really lost in visual with the screen tracking everything. Then I find that you start to stop listening or hearing in the same way when you take away that element and you just are working through the sound field, meditating, staring, focusing intently on the space between the speakers with no screen. That’s a powerful place.

Best interview with the man I have read. Kudos, Ned!

Thanks!

And yes I was really taken by that section as he spoke it -- a very vivid way to describe the experience, with as much concrete detail as conceptual.

cold, grim sequencer voyages through blackest space

I'm totally unfamiliar with this guy's work. Could you recommend a few titles that best fit this description/would sit comfortably alongside Zeit-era Tangerine Dream?

The Magnificent Void is a keeper along those lines, referenced upthread a number of times. Dynamic Stillness is a personal fave of mine as mentioned.

This would likely also suit, given that it's a Lustmord collaboration:

https://steveroach.com/Music/discography.php?albumID=348

Thanks! Darkest Before Dawn also seems like it might fit the bill.

That's one I've not heard but the title alone makes me think almost certainly.

great interview Ned

been hanging out a bit more often in Tuscon and Bisbee recently. this music sure makes a lot more sense after long road trips to Chiricahua and back.

Thanks indeed -- and yeah, his description of where he lives (didn't make the cut) was quite vivid.

Roach contains multitudes! Ned's piece made me curious about Dust To Dust, with Roger King. I own about 15 Steve Roach albums and I'd estimate that I've heard about double that number, but I've never heard him do anything like this, parts of which sound like what The Hired Hand soundtrack might have sounded like if it was released by Kranky in the 90s, or if Labradford had taken their ambient spaghetti western-isms to their logical conclusion. OK, some of it is that good, some of it isn't, but it's still a side of Roach I've never heard (harmonicas!) and I'm really enjoying it.

It's a treat, and holds a special place for me since it's the first thing I ever heard from Roach that I can recall. He told me himself that it was a bit of a unique one-off!

I'm hot and cold with Roach, with my favorite period being the 1998-1994 tribal ambient of Dreamtime Return, Origins, Artifacts and the collaborations with Robert Rich and Jorge Reyes (who got there first). However Dust to Dust is off his map, and I file it with Ry Cooder soundtracks, A Small Good Thing, Long Desert Cowboy, and similar artists, rather than Roach proper.

Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces weirdly not on the Bandcamp but I consider that one indispensible

yeah that one's my fav

That's one of the ones over on Projekt's site:

https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mystic-chords-sacred-spaces-complete-edition

And agreed, it's stellar.

Holy crap, I hadn't run across Dust To Dust before!

Ha, really? Yeah if any album is absolutely you, it's that one.

Currently enjoying Dust to Dust very much. Great interview, too.

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music - stuff like Dust to Dust, the Hired Hand soundtrack, any Scott Tuma, Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Ground...

Thank ya!

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music - stuff like Dust to Dust, the Hired Hand soundtrack, any Scott Tuma, Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Ground...

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, March 18, 2017 3:39 PM (nineteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Those last three are the biggies, imo, assuming you probably already know the Paris, Texas soundtrack. Do you know a band called Padang Food Tigers? They definitely hit on this vibe quite a bit, despite being about as far from the desert landscape as you can get (UK, iirc). Also, there are a lot of people working this angle from a dronier / noisier angle, like pedal steel guitarist Chas Smith (not to be confused with drummer Ches Smith), William Fowler Collins, and probably a few others.

There are probably people who can direct you to the "right" Calexico records, too (there are instrumental albums that definitely touch on this style) but I'm not really well-versed enough to say

Yes - love the Food Tigers! And, aye, definitely uk based. Paris, Texas is all-time. I'd forgotten Chas Smith. Santa Fe is a hell of a thing. Will check William Fowler Collins, for sure. Cheers.

Calexico pals Friends of Dean Martinez, their discography is all wide open sounds, the album "Atardecer" is my personal favorite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94CI1uLVl64

Try Marco beltrami's film score for tommy lee jones' The Homesman. Actually his other scores for Jones kind of fit too.

Seconding William Fowler Collins. Great live, too.

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music

See also:

Susan Alcorn - And i await the Resurrection (maybe not her best, but its what I have)
Barn Owl - any
Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas of course, also look for Trespass, Last Man Standing OSTs
Dead Texan - eponymous debut
Bruce Kaphan - Slider: Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel Guitar
Long Desert Cowboy - any
Rainer (Ptacek) - Nocturnes

if Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age is part of this genre, I'm starting a thread

"wide open desert music" S/D

Light Fantastic is one of my favorites by Steve Roach. That one has sections of meditations but then breaks into the big trancy Berlin like sequences.

regarding Mystic Chords, is it important for me to get the 3CD 'complete version' or am I fine with the still huge but less so editions? I have some emusic credits to burn.

I personally think the more Roach the better but some is better than none. And I can't remember if the complete edition has extra tracks or not on top of the original releases.

i recently learned that roach did a record with michael shrieve in 1988, the leaving time. it is on youtube and is just as fucking awesome as one might hope. transfer station blue vibes.

>regarding Mystic Chords, is it important for me to get the 3CD 'complete version' or am I fine with the still huge but less so editions? I have some emusic credits to burn.

I thought Mystic Chords was 4 CDs. At any rate, if you're at all interested, you're gonna want all of it eventually.

oh wait, haha... I have 17.00 emusic credits left this month and the mystic chords 4CD is 17.20 so maybe next month.

Mystic Chords is two 2-CD sets. The box set is literally just an outer box that holds both the sets. No extra tracks. I like discs 2 and 4 the best... Labyrinth and Piece of Infinity.

I wish he'd release a box set of the Immersion discs! Those are great if you favor the meditative/drone stuff. But I guess it would be, what... an 8-disc set?

I'd largely avoided Roach up until now - mainly because I think I'd misread him as gimmicky or new age* (in the pejorative sense). What with Ned's interview and various bits on here and the wide open space thread, I am happy to say I was horribly, gloriously wrong. I'm now frantically(so to speak) trying to navigate his discography trying to work out where to go next.

*this is within the bounds of fairness, right? See a man with a mullet holding a didgeridoo and I tend to wander the other way...

Well I am now on a Steve Roach kick.

Listening mostly to the earliest stuff, when he still sounds a lot like Tangerine Dream. And actually, I kind of like it better than TD -- shorter songs, not as much cheese. Actually, one of the best things I've heard is an epic track called "Harmonia Mundi" that was a bonus on the reissue of Empetus. 45-minutes of immaculate Berlin school patterns, and sounds like it could be the soundtrack for an entire season of Stranger Things by itself.

thanks! what other early years highlights have you got?

I would say Now, Traveler and Empetus are all strong Berlin school styled records, with scattered floaty ambient that you would expect from Roach. Traveler & Empetus (with the bonus track) are particularly strong

As Traveler was mentioned by Dominique there, worth noting that it's now available on Bandcamp as a name-your-price

https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/traveler

He also put up this one from 2001 as well

https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/core-legacy-edition

So what the hell is "e-music" supposed to have been? I've been reading AMG reviews, and it keeps being mentioned. Is it music along the lines of New Age but with electronics?

Also, this was just released as pay-what-you-want, and it sounds promising: https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/eclipse-mix.

I think it was an MP3-for-sale service?

tsk get outta here

I meant the "genre" that is alluded to in several reviews. Because of the mp3 service, I can't really google any other references to the genre. It's used in a lot of reviews on AMG by Jim Brenholts, e.g.,

"This CD is destined to be a classic. It will appeal to all e-music fans."

"There have been some dynamic collaborations in the e-music community."

"Stalker, by Robert Rich and B. Lustmord, is one of the darkest e-music CDs ever."

Also, I need to put a plug in for a Steve Roach album that isn't mentioned above: Spiral Revelation from 2016. Back to more Berlin-style synths sort of. Not nearly as frenetic as his earlier stuff in that vein. Much more akin to the recent albums by Steve Hauschildt, but naturally much more atmospheric than Hauschildt. Really good stuff!

I believe it's just an abbreviation of "electronic music", but favoured in the late 80s/90s by artists working in that field of spacey, ambient, Berlin-school, trad electronica (when "synth music" was a genre, rather than a description of most things). You'd hear it used all the time on the Jean Michel Jarre email discussion list I was on in the 90s, which probably puts it in context.

Thanks!

Playing three nights in a row in Tucson starting tonight, live stream via soma.fm, and he's about to start for tonight, so listen in

https://somafm.com/live/

Laying back quite a bit on the front half of this set. It's definitely a space track so far.

90 minutes inn...'oh yes, there are the drums'....

Dreamtime Return reissued:

https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/dreamtime-return-2018-high-resolution-remaster

There's an expanded version of Dreamtime Returns on the way apparently, with new tracks in the same style (as with the deluxe version of Structures From Silence a few years back). Plus a vinyl reissue too.

i recently found 2cd edition of 'quiet music' in a charity shop for £1.
that was a very good day.
had only heard the deep rich sonics of 'ritual ground'by steve roach and elmar schulte before.

I just discovered the album "Invisible", one of his long drone tracks. It stands out because it has some interesting percussion and textures that other works of his like this lack. Similar to that is the last track on "World's Edge". Both are worth checking out!

A fun bit of history

Steve Roach found the mock up of the Structures From Silence cover. This was the first cassette edition he self-released. Quickly it found its way to Stephen Hill @drSpace Hearts of Space @hearts_of_space and then to Ethan Edgecomb at Fortuna Records and the rest is history. pic.twitter.com/QKTIgfNKLR

— Projekt Records (@ProjektRecords) April 9, 2018

i put his new one on while i was writing something and there's almost too much going on for it to function as writing music lol

it's really great too i think https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/molecules-of-motion

i get very overwhelmed by his discography so i've just been going through chronologically lately. structures from silence is incredible, all the 80s stuff is imo

Skeleton Keys, one of his modular records, is available for free with name-your-price today for Halloween:

http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/skeleton-keys-name-your-price?from=fanpub_nfnb_merch

reallly loving mercurius today https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/mercurius

So many good releases this year, and now this news!

https://steveroachexclusive.bandcamp.com/subscribe

So excited about this. Subscribed!

All three of these initial ones in the service are really quite good, even (or especially) for two of them being outtakes or early/alternate versions of later albums.

a timely revive. one of his tracks is on the Cherry Red box set Third Noise Principle, which I was listening to last week, looks like it's from the Traveler LP, and was one of the tracks that stood out to me so I was going to look into his other stuff. although I think I did initially confuse him with Steve Reich like the first response here

I kinda wonder what the electric bill is at the Timeroom, as it seems the soundworld never stops there? I kinda want to hope he has some type of scifi artisanal solar/geothermal setup getting the 'electricity' from the source Gaia. In this I picture Steve having rolling sequences going all the time in the timeroom and just wandering through while doing laundry, folding towels and every so often going over and twisting a knob or dropping a lever changing the gurgling mood.

Out of the dozens of releases on Spotify with "tacked to the wall of the coffeeshop" level naming/artwork, picked out "Etheric Imprints" to listen to and it is awesome.

Wisdom.

Anyone heard his latest, A Soul Ascends?

I have! It is of course lovely, though I'll need a second listen to lock into what makes it distinctive (which just about all his albums have as a matter of course -- there's always a particular angle or theme he concentrates on release for release).

Just listened to it now, it is indeed lovely. I'm perfectly fine with him plying his subliminal trade ad infinitum.

Yeah I posted "abundance mindset" in the Patricia Taxxon thread, and I meant it, and it applies here too - artificial scarcity is a tactic of capitalism.

His latest released yesterday via the subscription service, Immerse is way, way immersive even for him. (Wonderful of course.). I had some thoughts:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-coping-1-39885119

His new one, Tomorrow, finds him in warm, glowing sequencer mode. It's really making my Friday morning
https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow

slaying on livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePCsPMjFVJo&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/ePCsPMjFVJo

track he just played from the new album Tomorrow is sick, and the cover art for the new one is his first good cover art since Structures From Silence imo

Yeah it's a lovely album and I admit I did a double-take at the cover, just because I thought it might have been some lost 80s reissue. Who knew! Had to miss the livestream but he's going to be putting it on his Bandcamp soon so all good.

immediately bought tomorrow on the strength of the first track, wow

the livestreams are so, so good

he's just the best

"elegant futurism," indeed! I always have time for Steve Roach but he sounds reinvigorated here. Absolutely buying this one. I usually buy his albums on CD, which seems a better format for this music, but I'll admit to being tempted by the vinyl edition this time.

have to get up and flip the record is antithetical to my notion of listening to Steve Roach

they practically invented the five-disc changer in anticipation of his Blood Moon Rising set.

Inclined to agree. Just pre-ordered the CD

this album is great. "HeartBreath" is just perfect

Trance Archaeology was pretty solid as well, in the same vein

Put on some Steve Roach to sooth the election brain, and wow 'Tomorrow' is dope. It avoids the signature things I associate with a lot of his music (shapeless pads, quiet plodding drums) and sounds much fresher for it.

ordered the vinyl, shipping January 11 ;_;

and even though i ordered it from Bandcamp, I have to wait for the download card insert, so my options are Spotify / pirate / nothing in the interim ;_;

weird, I got the FLACs from Bandcamp... I bought the CD though

yeah to get the vinyl you had to go to a different page on Bandcamp, which had a download ... of excerpts

I don't actually mind pirating having already bought the vinyl, I think I need succour after all the election drama and I'm asking for sympathy over here instead for some reason

Collecting Steve Roach vinyl sounds like a daunting prospect. Might need a new shelf.

It was nice to see that the digital was 'name your price' (I imagine because healing new age vibes should be accessible to everyone?)

message me, lukas

I have to order via Normans records in the UK, but in the past (for Portals comp).

an email to the label with proof you have bought the vinyl might see you get a BC download code.

This has worked in the past for a few labels and for Portals, Behind the Sky did me a solid.

A note for Sunday:

All Souls Procession closing Ceremony Live Stream Tucson Arizona Sunday November 8th 6pm to 8 pm AZ time.
This Sunday I will perform the closing ceremony music for the 31st annual All Souls Procession Ceremony. I will also joined by electro acoustic artist Serena Gabriel in a streamed studio performance just after 6PM and in the live closing ceremony at around 7:30 PM AZ time. (address below)

The 31st annual All Souls Procession is a celebration and mourning of the lives of our loved ones and ancestors; This year it is presented at the Annex Performance Space in Downtown Tucson. Last year I performed the closing ceremony for approximately 100,000 people; this year, with no procession occuring the closing ceremony will be performed live in the outdoor venue with only the production staff on hand. It will be streamed worldwide here: allsoulsprocession.org/livestream/

Putting this here to signal boost and hopefully not forget this is on.

https://soundquestfest.live/

set times look like all nighter for me in the UK, but also might sync the dawn rising for the final acts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FR0thRsgMY

Meantime, starting in a little under an hour from now, per the man himself:

Steve Roach Premiere Streaming Concert Event TONIGHT! 6PM PST, 7PM MST, 8PM CST, 9PM EST, 2AM GMT
Join us for this 2 hour premiere stream concert originally recorded February 7, 2020 in Phoenix Arizona. This was one of the last times I would perform live with an audience before the pandemic took hold. Its a great 3 camera presentation. The set, visuals and sound were all at a high point for this one.
I will be on hand at the Youtube chat for the duration of the concert. See you there!
www.youtube.com/steveroachofficial

It’s a very nice performance!

that hearts of space bumper is the greatest thing I've ever seen

i really need to go to bed but he got the didj out and i'm transfixed.

He opened with Structures From Silence. What a legend

Indeed -- and if you stayed all the way to the end, he's introduced a new 24/7 streaming project on YouTube, the Immersion Zone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY-otpFaJ-w

ready for my 24/7/365 Steve Roach, which I will only turn off when I feel like listening to the world

If you've been subscribing via Bandcamp he just dropped an interesting rerelease: The Leaving Time, retitled The Lost Time, his late eighties major label collaboration with Michael Shrieve:

https://www.discogs.com/Michael-Shrieve-Steve-Roach-The-Leaving-Time/release/219968

Plus folks like guitarist David Torn, as you can pretty audibly tell from the opening track. Kinda reminds me of sonically adjacent if not exactly similar stuff like Laswell's Hear No Evil. Roach's new liner notes make some cryptic reference about it being "long out-of-print and locked up in the RCA vaults at this point" so I have a feeling this is his way of mmmaybe sneaking it out quietly.

he's working on a collab with Michael Stearns which I am looking forward to

he's working on a collab with Michael Stearns which I am looking forward to

yes, based on both their performances during Steve's festival, that should be a great record.

If you have fifteen minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Nw9dVUokA

Per the man himself:

A rare look into the deep end of me working at the Timeroom in Tucson, Arizona Timeroom studio in 2000. I designed and had the studio built in in the mid 90s and since moved to Baja AZ, below Tucson in the mid 2000's.
This was shot in cinéma vérité style by Fever Dreams collaborator William Merkle, this visual artifact presents a fascinating look into my working in the studio unseen until now. You will hear raw elements of Early Man, Fever Dreams, Blood Machine and Streams and Currents. This surreal look back in time with Linda and my beloved dogs Nala and Raven, the reliable and now departed messengers from between the worlds.

I do love this

1980’s - I worked @ Licorice Pizza Records on the Sunset strip in W. Hollywood. Many wild stories!

At this time, I played solo synth concerts in clubs & theaters all over S. CA. & was in a synth trio, Moebius, that played in new wave & punk clubs. #electronicmusic #ambient pic.twitter.com/Ea5VMVqvX1

— Steve Roach Official (@steve_timeroom) September 15, 2021

I like to imagine Brad time travelling to go buy records from him.

I wonder if he did any gigs with Wall of Voodoo or The Screamers/Nervous Gender?

In an alternate universe, I travel to Arizona, take peyote and watch him perform in a desert for like two days.

Great wisdom

So over at Shfl I figured it was time to create an at-least initial guide to the good man's work:

https://theshfl.com/guide/steve-roach

ah excellent. Dynamic Stillness sounds intriguing.

First public live show since the start of the pandemic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWXlt0s1mqI

Pretty fantastic, that.

Spirit Dome has induced an altered state of consciousness in me more than once.

I just found this 24-7 Immersion Zone channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L0TWU7Altc

It is a lovely resource

So Steve and Robert Rich are doing a joint show in Tucson in the near future:

https://dice.fm/event/yekrr-steve-roachs-ambient-lounge-robert-rich-5th-dec-the-century-room-tucson-tickets

Meantime, live dates in March and April including Grace Cathedral here in SF, this’ll be great.

https://linktr.ee/ageofreflections

Been sitting on this news for a while but I'm thrilled to say that for my debut in The Wire I did an extensive interview with Steve the other month, over two hours. I hope I've created a bit of a definitive profile for him as a result -- at least at this stage! I learned a heck of a lot in the conversation.

https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/482

assume his next CD will be a remix of the interview

Astounding

It's a really good piece. I've yet to explore his work because there's just so goddamn much of it, but the bits about his friendship with/admiration of Schulze definitely make me want to dive in. I'll start with Structures From Silence and see where that leads me.

structures from silence absolutely slaps

His music really clicked for me when I learned that his studio is in Tucson. Its a nice translation of the feeling I had when I lived there and would drive home up into the mountains at dawn with my ears ringing from a warehouse show.

My copy just arrived and I'm very much looking forward to reading this. I came to him via being really into Jorge Reyes which led me to Suspended Memories and then to SR's solo work, though I feel I have only scratched the surface of his discography.

structures from silence so beautiful, i think i've begun dabbling in others but really need to amp that up

Projekt records are a good follow on bandcamp as most of the back catalogue is on name your price costs.

which means its easier to drop £1-5 on a digital download, Structures from Silence is still a great start.

His 2021 Michael Stearns collab is recommended.

structures from silence absolutely slaps

I'm not sure that's the right word in this case. "Structures from Silence absolutely gently brushes your cheek"?

lol

Quick note for any Bay Area friends that I have guest list space for Roach's Grace Cathedral show this Saturday -- give me a shout if you're interested!

Alas, already bought my tix, see you there

Looking forward!

Phew, great performance last night indeed, we had a mini ILX coffee klatch in the back with lukas, beard papa and myself. A wonderful two hour trip.

Well damn, missed this thread and went to the show last night, it was absolutely fantastic!

Yeah remarkably compelling over that two hours. He seems to know what he's doing.

The projected lighting was one of the more beautiful accompaniments to a show I've ever seen, and that's saying something. Seemed like Roach performed a bunch of stuff spanning his career then ended on Structures From Silence.

He mentioned in a quick email to me that they loaded in at 10 am and worked to get the sound right up through 5:45 pm — all time worth spending, you could feel that all the way to the back where we were at!

I wasn't even on anything for that show and the visuals made me feel like I was hallucinating so I had to close my eyes for a lot of the performance. What a great show.

Truly! Had some thoughts:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-weekly-111-102230898

Hah, I was listening for the "gentle fanfare" too.