STEVE ROACH

1. "Taking Flight" (10:36) atmospheric synths mixed behind/with very dynamic African large-group percussion. I keep waiting for the keening voice of Peter Gabriel to break in! Also a bit of Steve's inspiration must have come from Jonathan Goldman's Trance work from the 1980s. (18/20) 2. "Trance Spirits" (16:44) opening with some more complicated polyrhythmic group drumming than the previous song, the electric atmospherics that accompany the drumming are thinner, less dense in instrumental involvement than "Taking Flight" yet the song is full of twists, turns, tempo and dynamic shifts from the drums while the electronics maintain their creepy, watchful presence in the background--at least until the middle when creepy jungle/swamp spirit sounds enter and take over. The "spirits" do not relent but instead dominate and repress the return of the human drummers for the entire second half of the song. (27/30) 3. "Off Spring" (8:10) bleeding over from the previous song, it takes a minute for the new motif to establish itself--to, in effect, wash away the aquatic jungle spirits. Downstream we come across a waterfall where there is a new tribe on the banks of the river waiting, watching, playing their pacifying drum rhythms as the PBR silently presses onward. A soft, almost relaxing drum pattern becomes supportive from the background--as if from a distance--while Steve plays with new sprite-like "spirits" in the foreground. The spirits start to darken, grow more malignant, in the third minute, conjuring up some Blade Runner-like feelings of fear and insecurity. The song feels more like a Bar-do-like waiting room between songs/themes. Some angelic strains seem to be trying to infiltrate during the final 90 seconds. (13.375/15) 4. "Seekers" (7:20) more eery, slow moving jungle-scenery riverboat music with some electronic "hybrid grooves" that predict the ever-present threat of clandestine river-side indigens. (13.25/15)

5. "The Calling" (5:47) tribal drumming as if from inside a land-based party/celebration (feast). Steve's jungle spirits are now watching from deep in the woods as the listener sits (inside his prison/cage?) listening to the drug-induced rager going on around him. Very cool drum rhythms until the very sudden and unexpected stop at 3:52. (8.875/10)

6. "Year of the Horse" (13:34) bleeding over from the previous song, a new drum pattern slowly emerges from the jungle--like a processional--enhanced by the accompanying joinder of electronic waves of Fripp and Roach chords, loops, and scapes. The drum pattern is rather synthesized and almost Celtic ("Lord of the Dance") dance-like in its stringent form and mathematic constancy. In the seventh minute something finally gets added to the rhythm track but then shimmer-scampers off (though it does return in the eighth and then gradually settles into the mix with the rest of the percussive sounds--making them sound more horse-gallop like--variations of which persist until the song's end). Interesting! (26.25/30)

7. "In The Same Deep Water" (11:42) more-layered synth scape that is quickly joined by a more complex, multi-layered and multi-instrumental group drum pattern. This one sounds most like the opening song. The electronics are not dynamic enough to be of much interest but the drumming goes through several polyrhythmic shifts within specific strands of weave over the course of the song, making this the more interesting aspect to tune into. In the sixth and seventh minutes the pitch range of the electronic sounds begins to shift to incorporate more low-end options into the spectrum. It seems that a long and very subtle fade begins in the eighth minute with the drums cutting out permanently at the 9:10 mark while the trance spirits seem to slowly fade back into the jungle, downstream on the river, as the listener watches on. (18.25/20)

Total Time 74 min

As alluded to many times in my commentary, this sounds like a soundtrack to the eery travels of Willard's Navy river patrol boat up river on his mission to find and "terminate" ("with extreme prejudice") the command of insane-gone- rogue Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. Quite an enjoyable and very cinematic listening experience.

B+/4.5 stars; an excellent and refreshing adventure in cinematic music using Steve Roach's ever-creative mind and his progressive electronic creds to pull it off.

If there is one mood that conveys this album well, it is loneliness. These reverberated notes and these space sounding textures all express a lonely-sentimental value that enhances the 3 songs off the album. It creates a highly moody atmosphere in the seams of the album. I feel like this is the album's biggest strong suit, just how it goes to these more melancholic passages of drone and synths that places a huge emphasis on the listener's emotions.

I have to say though, that this isn't really the most groundbreaking ambient album I have heard. It kinda feels like the rest of the stuff I heard from the genre, since all ambient records basically have one goal in mind: emphasizing moods over typical sound structure. This makes the genre easy to get into, but also kinda tricky to find something REALLY new. Structures From Silence doesn't bring anything new to the table, which is kind of a shame as this is generally considered a really good ambient record to many people, but I simply don't quite see it even after a bunch of listens.

A perfectly fine ambient record, but not one that gets me salivating for more of Roach's material. He is clearly good with his crafts, but he doesn't spark much originality in his wake.

Steve Roach´s Zones, Drones & Atmospheres (2022) is enticing, somewhat marvelous. Like a tour de force of his composotion wise style. As told he reveals his wonder like music, no hesitation not here or there. All is kind of invisible, yes kind of out of nowhere. Subtle yet dynamic trance like. A big surprise that it all flows and flows as a dream slowly. It is dark but bright and in between. Not recomended for the fast and furious, but for Progessive Electronics followers as a must. I´m so glad as to listen to this jewel as to own this music. Inspiring and detached a great combination. Steve Roach at his best! The perfection of solitude. A dream withing a dream withing a dream............ A 5 invisible stars release.

These days, it's not unusual for Roach to offer very low-key and droning ambient works, some of which are even gently melancholic. However, with the way the year has gone, perhaps he's aware that another similar work might prompt listeners to dwell too long, potentially leading to overwhelming and unhappier places brought on by the current state of the world. So, in contrast, `Tomorrow' (even the title is hopeful) enlivens the senses by being unwaveringly full of momentum and liveliness, with sequenced patterns in constant movement, ringing and chiming into infinity, and the artist's trademark lush synth veils weaving around them.

Self-titled opener `Tomorrow' sets much of a template for this collection. Embracing both his more melodic percussive-driven styles with his thoughtful ambience, sequencer programming bounces with purpose, sometimes quickening and strident, other times retreating. They move between glistening waves of cooling electronic caresses that lap back and forth, always shimmering with elegance and teeming with life. Very slight uneasy textures that infiltrate the extended piece may remind some listeners of the legendary Klaus Schulze, but they are quickly chased back by more optimistic qualities.

Parts of `Optimal Being' drift into gentler touches before a dramatic finale that reminds of Eighties-era Tangerine Dream. `HeartBreath' swoons with a `Structures From Silence'-like enveloping sweetness with the softest pattering of beats. Both the shorter `Spiral of Strength' and `A Different Today' occupy the final side, with the former being up-tempo and urgent - maybe even a little giddy! - and the latter a sleek and graceful closer.

Being available on both CD and vinyl (a format that Roach doesn't explore too often these days) suggests this release is aiming for wider exposure and attention than usual, and it couldn't be a more ideal set to showcase the modern era of the artist. Steve's artistic, intelligent and accessible sides are all in perfect unison here, making it a treat for long-time listeners, curious newcomers or even more casual fans, and `Tomorrow' proves to be a reminder that joy, love and hope can be found in even the most uncertain and trying of times.

Five stars for prog-electronic fans.

A heartfelt melancholic drive, What a WONDERFUL Art world it is.

Steve Roach' s STILLPOINT, brings back the sweet/beautifulness of Steve Roach's idiom back in place, where he , is hImself and where no one else dares to dwell. Nothing to brag about yet nothing to withhold.

(No COPY-CAT AS ALWAYS), thus furthering his electronic music drive of his own created language to new unsuspected meditative places, which he himself creates and has created. This release shows his inner quest for heartfelt beauty in his own music way of electronic music expression .

Feel feelings, and then feel again, the Progressive Electronic way of course!

Well my, PE´s' friends (lol), this aritst is more than alive, God SAVE THE KING!

****

As for me I do prefer the evolution of his own idiom.

Trance Archeology (2019) moves around those last lines. Setting up here & there for some contemporary electronic music structures to support his well established own findings which dwell between modern primitive & dreamy or nightmarish soundscapes blended into one.

Experimentation does happens, but discreet & mature, not to impress but to add some new twists to once told tales.

Yet, somehow, he stops digging in his personal findings, and repeats himself more than once, maybe unconsciously. So, there will be this kind of eerie atmospheres, which as first time impressions are formidable, but on a third or fourth ocassion (in other previous works), they kind of lose their unique significance.

Thus, it let me wondering....... if his personal language has touched rock bottom?, or as before mentioned, needs to be reshaped and shakened?

Tuff to rate, cause original it is, but due to his own already set standards, it hardly raises above his many other previous masterpieces.

***/*

`Spawn Of Time' is an unhurried psychedelic drift, all creaking, gurgling and groaning synths around rising/falling trickles over drowsy ambient drones. When gentle tribal beats begin to enter, they're distorted into other-worldly mystery, with a cool machine iciness fused to ancient earthen textures, and there's a brooding unease rippling throughout this opening seventeen- minute passage. The wondrous `Indigo Moon' is a very special moment - languorous guitar chimes and ruminative piano musings hold a very crystalline and freed quality, and it's rare to hear Steve approach these instruments in such a way.

`Trance Genealogy' may initially be grounded in sparkling electronic fizzes and delicately bouncing Berlin School-flavoured sequencer patterns, but its soothing New-Age caresses ultimately prove uplifting with an intimate fragility. After the `Sigh of Ages'-like `Long Shadow', the cavernous `Birthpulse' relentlessly slinks with murky morphing grooves and cavernous inhaling/exhaling ambient breaths. Former Roach collaborator Robert Logan enters here and contributes various enhancements, enough to subtly twist the disc even further into the alien-like textures that pervaded their 2016 `Biosonic' team-up, and he helps make `Firebreather' ripple with flinching tribal twitches and turn `Unearthed' sludgy and lurching. Closer `Soul Archaeology' is blissful with lulling and soothing ambient veils sweeping across the listener in the most delicate and soothing manner.

For seasoned Roach fans, or for those who like to see ambient/prog-electronic works taken to their artistic peaks, the disc is endlessly immersive and achingly beautiful, being one of his most colourful and diverse releases of recent times. `Trance Archaeology' showcases the artist achieving a truly seamless fusion of vintage and modern styles that make up his various musical personalities today, and makes for surreal, uneasy and darkly addictive listening with constant moments of pristine beauty.

Four and a half stars.

"Heliosphere" is divided up into 8 sections, most of them quite lengthy and explorative. The tracks are named "Sphere 1" through "Sphere 8". The basic foundations of these sonic, musical "paintings" are created by the anonymous artist using analog and digital synths and recorded them in real time, and the artist is typically is interested in making soundscapes for personal healing and long meditation sessions. Roach took these synth textures and provided missing and adding of additional synth textures and stylings and these 8 compositions resulted from this.

The tracks flow from one to the next almost seamlessly, and subtle changes occur during the course of each track. The soundscapes move along slowly, not interested in creating melodic or rhythmic patterns of any kind, but more to create atmosphere and textural tracks. All through Sphere 1 and about half of Sphere 2, the main drone sound remains dark and quite deep with ambient slow waves of tone coming in and out, but halfway through the 2nd track, these tonal waves start getting a bit brighter and slightly sharper. Sphere 3 shows more tonal shifts as the sustained tones change more often, almost like a very slow melody where the chords are held so long that you might never notice, but you do notice more movement in the track.

This increase in subtle movements in the tones continues until Sphere 6, which returns to a darker sound that is centered more around the deep drone. Higher tones ring out almost at indiscernible levels that shimmer more in your head than they do in your ears. But they are there. You can especially hear the sound of the shimmering synth towards the end of the track, but not much else changes through the duration of this 11 minute track. At the end, it fades to almost complete silence which Sphere 7 continues as a new texture slowly increases as pulsating tones grow along with it. These pulses are the closest thing to any rhythmic structure you will find on the album. The final track remains the most ambient and minimal with quiet tone drones barely holding the sonic levels in hearing range.

This is an album made up of soundscapes that would be most useful for meditation and quieting your mind. You will not find melodic or rhythmic music here, but you will find deep and textural sounds that will take your mind away to other spatial spheres if you let it. For that purpose, this is an effective album, and is well produced for that purpose.

Add some field recordings of wild birds, which Mr. Roach rarely uses, and it all makes sense. From material reality to musical unreality in 73+- minutes. It achieves what it intends, music composition/performance wise it works out. So as you may suspect, this is no speed freak´s thrill.

Now as far as how many times I will consider Steve Roach´s Atmosphere For Dreaming (2018) a recurring choice could hardly be considered essential (he alone offers tons of alternatives), but like a good movie or book I will eventually give it a spin. Because if not essential as such beautiful it still is.

4 PA´s stars. For Prog. Electronic/Ambient followers as well as his own flock.