Jorge Reyes, Steve Roach & Suso Sáiz's "Forgotten Gods" as Suspended Memories was my entry point to Roach.
I have long meant to delve into Chac Mool so thanks for the reminder.
― stirmonster, Sunday, 22 November 2020 04:39 (three years ago) link
It is kinda weird that even though both of them go back to the UK/German synth pioneer groups, that the 'ambient' that comes out of dance music/IDM stuff does not really cross over all that much into the Echoes/new age music. Sound wise there definitely is some crossover, but I don't know as much on their fan bases for the music.
― earlnash, Sunday, 22 November 2020 04:45 (three years ago) link
Outside ixlor that is...
― earlnash, Sunday, 22 November 2020 04:46 (three years ago) link
Ned, where art thou?
― pomenitul, Sunday, 22 November 2020 17:45 (three years ago) link
Why, I'm right here.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 November 2020 18:12 (three years ago) link
Robert's a great artist and a very friendly fellow in person, Steve's an incredible interviewee and someone whose process I honor deeply. I am ultimately more of a Roach fan but that's happened more by default over the years thanks to having been on Projekt's mailing list since the late 1990s -- I just have more of his work by default.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 22 November 2020 18:13 (three years ago) link
thx for the Reyes reminder, folks
― howls of non-specificity (sleeve), Sunday, 22 November 2020 18:18 (three years ago) link
wow, I had no idea that on the fourth Chac Mool album (Caricia Digital) they went full-on new wave!
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Sunday, 22 November 2020 18:48 (three years ago) link
I like the sequencers on the new Roach album
he gets my vote because I've listened to more of his work over a longer time, but these days I'm more likely to put on Rich
― Brad C., Sunday, 22 November 2020 19:10 (three years ago) link
This contest is Earth vs. Sky.
― TheMacFromWayBack (JMac), Monday, 23 November 2020 01:30 (three years ago) link
yeah, unable to vote
but totally get the comparison. out of all the people in the bay area meditative / space music scene of the late 70's / early 80's, these two are both still feeling pretty vital, and the other thing binding them is their understanding of generative & endless forms. from the beginning Rich was all about his Stanford / Berkeley / Esalen 7-8 hour sleep concerts, and Roach's breakthrough piece was Structures which was pretty audibly a 30 minute excerpt of automated music that didn't need to end. in the flood of post 'Discreet' / 'Airports' calming ambient, Rich & Roach don't get mentioned enough in the historical curve of generative / cybernetic music. even the longer immersive sidelong 30 minute album sides of Berlin school sequencer music still used dramatic forms / climaxes -- these guys are pointing at the same ideas Douglas Leedy or Roland Kayn were pointing out in their early 70's liner notes of time scales in music beyond what the human body could perform
this key thing they have in common is also tied to the prolific output that has kept their profile relatively higher (the 'new release from Steve Roach' bandcamp email gets funnier every second or third week it goes out), but given how diverse and deep this scene is and how many of the most important records are still only cassette transfers on youtube, bringing up those peers is important
Jorge Reyes is really his own thing. if he hadn't passed early I want to believe his rep would be at the level Jon Hassell's finally gotten to now, but I have no idea how these things work
― Milton Parker, Monday, 23 November 2020 03:59 (three years ago) link
Good post.
― pomenitul, Monday, 23 November 2020 20:03 (three years ago) link
great thread
― real muthaphuckkin jeez (crüt), Monday, 23 November 2020 20:38 (three years ago) link
honorable mention for my mans Erik Wøllo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYLs2cINAjE
― real muthaphuckkin jeez (crüt), Monday, 23 November 2020 20:40 (three years ago) link
he's more like Forrest Fang or Klaus Schulze, tends to have a lot more going on in terms of melody, etc.
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Monday, 23 November 2020 20:44 (three years ago) link
Sounds really nice. Even more stuff to explore, thanks!xp
― pomenitul, Monday, 23 November 2020 20:47 (three years ago) link
good jumping-off points for exploring the genre: compilations "The Promises of Silence" on Projekt, and "Twilight Earth" on Timebase (there's two of the latter)
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Monday, 23 November 2020 20:49 (three years ago) link
Yeah he's put out plenty of solid work as well as Forrest, who I had the pleasure of interviewing a couple of years back as well.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 November 2020 21:03 (three years ago) link
I’m not really into space music but I love a few peaceful Steve Roach tracks like “Quiet Friend”. Vidna Obmana is someone I really want to devote more time too, heard some stuff recently that seemed right up my alley. I’m always looking for stuff like Discreet Music. Always been kind scared of Robert Rich, seems so dark.
― brimstead, Monday, 23 November 2020 21:10 (three years ago) link
His best work draws upon a darker palette, yes, but much of it is serenely positive too. Offering to the Morning Fog, which came out earlier this year, is more becalming than not.
― pomenitul, Monday, 23 November 2020 21:19 (three years ago) link
I’ll check it out
― brimstead, Monday, 23 November 2020 22:57 (three years ago) link
the division between peaceful / dark approaches in this music is pretty interesting
I always took it that Roach made precisely three kinds of records -- sequencer/Berlin, peaceful/healing and then the darker isolationist strains, and that the breakthrough examples of each were 'Empetus', 'Structures From Silence' or 'Quiet Music', and then 'Magnificent Void'. But this thread got me back to his website where he defines his three styles as sequencer-driven Space Music, floating time-extension ambience, and... tribal-ambient (electro-acoustic hybrid, cue flutes & percussion >> 'Dreamtime Return')
Whereas I always grouped his second and third strains by mood & affect, the second being all his tranquil stuff like 'Structures' or 'Dreamtime' whether or not it was all electronic or helping itself to acoustic ritual traditions, and the third being the 'breakthrough' he made when he annexed the previous 15 years of ambient industrial and started sounding less like Hearts of Space and more like Zoviet-France / MB / Lustmord / everything on Projekt
Hearts of Space started the Fathom sublabel for Rich & Roach at that point to put out the darker stuff -- Fathom put out 'Stalker' and 'Void', and then Roach sensibly moved to Projekt and began his 3-8 albums a year schedule in earnest. Maybe it's because of the very distinct label branding I grouped his strains accordingly
― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 24 November 2020 00:00 (three years ago) link
https://www.colpapress.com/products/music-from-the-hearts-of-space-guide-anna-turner-stephen-hill
^^ this is a pretty amazing comprehensive overview circa 1981 of everything Hill & Turner were drawing on for the 70s HoS shows. striking for including a lot of folk records which included space-adjacent tracks, a listing of the most space adagio movements of modern classical (key to understanding the curation for the soundtrack of Sagan's Cosmos). and also for his inclusion of cassettes & unreleased tapes locals had sent him, a few of which have gotten reissued like Joanna Brouk or Ariel Karma but it is kind of crazy to see a historical document like this helping to will a genre into existence
Bump.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 2 December 2020 20:06 (three years ago) link
Thanks for this thread - I never listened to much by Robert Rich or Jorge Reyes, and I'm starting to get into both. Reyes I only knew from his Mort Aux Vaches album (which is great), I've been listening to The Flayed God a bunch this week and it's awesome too.
― toby, Thursday, 3 December 2020 08:56 (three years ago) link
Ultimately this is just Mozart vs. Beethoven redux (Beethoven is the correct answer, obv).
― pomenitul, Thursday, 3 December 2020 14:46 (three years ago) link
I've been spending the past week listening to both, and I think I'm leaning towards Rich... really love Fissures with Alio Die, Yearning with Lisa Moskow, and the recent Offerings to the Morning Fog.
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 3 December 2020 21:24 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 20 December 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Almost forgot to vote…
It's still Rich for me but I'm currently listening to the last track off of Inanna's Dream – a Roach/Serena Gabriel collab that came out this year – and thinking that either outcome would be equally perfect.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 20 December 2020 15:57 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 21 December 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Only 15 votes? Tsk, tsk, ILMers clearly need more ambient beatitude in their lives.
― pomenitul, Monday, 21 December 2020 00:04 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FR0thRsgMY
― xzanfar, Monday, 21 December 2020 02:54 (three years ago) link