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STEVE ROACH

Progressive Electronic • United States


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Steve Roach picture
Steve Roach biography
Born 1955-02-16 (La Mesa, California, USA)

Leader and pioneering figure of the L.A Sacred space music movement. Steve Roach made a name in the 1980 with the release of outstanding lysergic-binaural musical experiences dominated by synth analog chords, sustained by magnificent spiritual-epiphanic cosmic grooves. His music sometimes reveals an ethno-ritual and acoustic instrumentation and tranced-out rhythms. Structures from Silence (Fortuna, 1984), Dreamtime Return (Fortuna, 1988) are considered to be his finest. He released a handful of collaborative works with many notorious artists such as Michael Stearns, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana...). Steve Roach's music is a strong inspiration on a new generation of musicians and bands such as Oophoi, Matthias Grassow, Alio Die, Jeff Pearce (...)

Similar artists In the archives: Alio Die, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, Bernard Xolotl, Harold Budd (...)

Philippe Blache

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STEVE ROACH discography


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STEVE ROACH top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 4 ratings
Now
1982
3.33 | 3 ratings
Traveler
1983
2.79 | 29 ratings
Structures From Silence
1984
3.50 | 8 ratings
Quiet Music 1
1986
3.86 | 7 ratings
Empetus
1986
4.50 | 4 ratings
Quiet Music 2
1986
3.67 | 3 ratings
Quiet Music 3
1986
4.00 | 1 ratings
Western Spaces
1987
3.33 | 3 ratings
The Leaving Time
1988
3.48 | 25 ratings
Dreamtime Return
1988
4.00 | 2 ratings
Desert Solitaire
1989
4.43 | 7 ratings
Strata
1990
3.00 | 2 ratings
Australia: Sound of the Earth
1990
4.50 | 6 ratings
Soma (with Robert Rich)
1992
4.00 | 4 ratings
Forgotten Gods ( as Suspended Memories)
1992
3.56 | 9 ratings
World's Edge
1992
3.60 | 5 ratings
Origins
1993
4.00 | 7 ratings
The Dream Circle
1994
3.83 | 6 ratings
Artifacts
1994
4.50 | 2 ratings
Earth Island (as Suspended Memories)
1994
4.00 | 4 ratings
Well of Souls
1995
4.50 | 2 ratings
Kiva
1995
3.50 | 2 ratings
Halcyon Days
1996
4.03 | 12 ratings
The Magnificent Void
1996
3.50 | 4 ratings
On This Planet
1997
4.00 | 4 ratings
Cavern of Sirens
1997
4.50 | 2 ratings
Dust to Dust (with Roger King)
1998
4.00 | 4 ratings
Slow Heat
1998
4.00 | 2 ratings
Body Electric
1999
4.50 | 2 ratings
Ascension of Shadows - Meditations for the Millennium
1999
4.00 | 3 ratings
Light Fantastic
1999
4.67 | 3 ratings
Atmospheric Conditions
1999
3.88 | 5 ratings
Midnight Moon
2000
4.00 | 2 ratings
Vine ~ Bark & Spore
2000
4.00 | 1 ratings
Circles & Artifacts
2000
4.00 | 3 ratings
The Serpent's Lair
2000
4.00 | 3 ratings
Blood Machine
2001
4.60 | 5 ratings
Core
2001
4.50 | 2 ratings
Early Man
2001
4.38 | 18 ratings
Trance Spirits
2002
4.02 | 9 ratings
Darkest Before Dawn
2002
1.00 | 1 ratings
InnerZone
2002
3.00 | 2 ratings
Streams & Currents
2002
3.75 | 4 ratings
Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (Part 1)
2003
4.67 | 3 ratings
Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (Part 2)
2003
4.00 | 2 ratings
Life Sequence
2003
3.50 | 2 ratings
Holding the Space: Fever Dreams II
2004
4.00 | 3 ratings
Spirit Dome
2004
3.00 | 4 ratings
Mantram
2004
4.50 | 2 ratings
Fever Dreams
2004
3.00 | 1 ratings
Somewhere Else
2005
4.00 | 2 ratings
Possible Planet
2005
3.75 | 4 ratings
New Life Dreaming
2005
4.00 | 3 ratings
Immersion : One
2006
3.67 | 3 ratings
Immersion : Two
2006
4.00 | 1 ratings
Terraform
2006
4.00 | 1 ratings
Proof Positive
2006
2.00 | 1 ratings
Fever Dreams III
2007
4.33 | 3 ratings
Immersion : Three
2007
0.00 | 0 ratings
Nada Terma
2008
4.00 | 6 ratings
Arc of Passion
2008
4.48 | 10 ratings
A Deeper Silence
2008
4.50 | 2 ratings
Immersion : Four
2009
4.00 | 1 ratings
Stream of Thought
2009
4.75 | 4 ratings
Dynamic Stillness
2009
4.00 | 1 ratings
Afterlight
2009
4.50 | 2 ratings
Destination Beyond
2009
4.50 | 2 ratings
Nightbloom
2010
3.50 | 2 ratings
Dream Tracker
2010
4.00 | 3 ratings
Sigh of Ages
2010
4.67 | 3 ratings
Immersion Five - Circadian Rhythms
2011
5.00 | 2 ratings
The Road Eternal
2011
4.00 | 1 ratings
The Desert Inbetween
2011
4.50 | 2 ratings
Low Volume Music
2012
4.50 | 2 ratings
Soul Tones
2012
3.75 | 4 ratings
Back to Life
2012
4.20 | 5 ratings
GROOVE IMMERSION
2012
5.00 | 1 ratings
Tales from the Ultra Tribe
2012
4.85 | 8 ratings
Spiral Meditations
2013
4.09 | 4 ratings
FUTURE FLOWS
2013
4.00 | 2 ratings
The Long Night (with Kelly David)
2014
4.30 | 14 ratings
The Delicate Forever
2014
4.04 | 7 ratings
The Delicate Beyond
2014
3.91 | 8 ratings
Bloodmoon Rising
2014
3.92 | 5 ratings
The Ancestor Circle (with Jorge Reyes)
2014
3.50 | 2 ratings
Bloodmoon Rising - Night 2
2014
4.00 | 3 ratings
Monuments of Ecstasy (with Byron Metcalf, Rob Thomas)
2015
3.04 | 5 ratings
Bloodmoon Rising - Night 3
2015
3.00 | 6 ratings
Skeleton Keys
2015
3.95 | 4 ratings
Etheric Imprints
2015
3.98 | 4 ratings
Bloodmoon Rising - Night 4
2015
3.50 | 4 ratings
Vortex Immersion Zone
2015
4.00 | 4 ratings
Emotions Revealed
2015
3.70 | 8 ratings
Invisible
2015
4.00 | 1 ratings
The Skeleton Collection 2005-2015
2015
3.95 | 2 ratings
Biosonic (Steve Roach & Robert Logan)
2016
3.95 | 5 ratings
Second Nature (Steve Roach & Robert Logan)
2016
2.67 | 6 ratings
This Place To Be
2016
4.08 | 21 ratings
Shadow of Time
2016
3.04 | 4 ratings
Fade To Gray
2016
4.34 | 15 ratings
Spiral Revelation
2016
3.98 | 3 ratings
Painting In The Dark
2016
4.00 | 4 ratings
THE PASSING
2017
0.00 | 0 ratings
Nostalgia for the Future
2017
4.00 | 3 ratings
Long Thoughts
2017
3.50 | 2 ratings
Ecplise Mix
2017
4.06 | 16 ratings
Molecules of Motion
2018
3.73 | 7 ratings
Mercurius
2018
4.04 | 9 ratings
Atmosphere for Dreaming
2018
3.87 | 7 ratings
HelioSphere (Radiant Mind & Steve Roach)
2019
4.00 | 2 ratings
The Gesture of History (with Sam Rosenthal & Nick Shadow)
2019
3.86 | 7 ratings
Bloom Ascension
2019
3.91 | 8 ratings
Trance Archeology
2019
4.12 | 6 ratings
Stillpoint
2019
4.00 | 1 ratings
Nectar Meditation (Steve Roach & Serena Gabriel)
2020
4.00 | 3 ratings
A Soul Ascends
2020
4.00 | 1 ratings
Inanna's Dream (Serena Gabriel & Steve Roach)
2020
4.52 | 10 ratings
Tomorrow
2020
0.00 | 0 ratings
Into the Majestic
2021
0.00 | 0 ratings
Temple of the Melting Dawn (with Serena Gabriel)
2021
0.00 | 0 ratings
As It Is
2021
0.00 | 0 ratings
Beyond Earth & Sky (with Michael Sterns)
2021
5.00 | 2 ratings
Zones, Drones & Atmospheres
2022
2.50 | 2 ratings
What Remains
2022
5.00 | 1 ratings
Essentials 1984-2004 / Space and Time
2022

STEVE ROACH Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 4 ratings
Stormwarning
1989
3.00 | 1 ratings
Live Archive
2000
3.67 | 3 ratings
All Is Now - Live 2002
2002
5.00 | 1 ratings
Storm Surge: Steve Roach Live at NEARfest
2006
4.00 | 1 ratings
Ultra Immersion Concert
2007
4.04 | 6 ratings
Landmass
2008
3.80 | 5 ratings
Steve Roach - Live at Grace Cathedral (2010)
2010
4.50 | 2 ratings
Journey of One
2011
4.00 | 1 ratings
Live at SoundQuest Fest
2011
4.00 | 1 ratings
Live Transmission
2013
0.00 | 0 ratings
At The Edge Of Everything
2013
4.50 | 2 ratings
Alive In The Vortex
2015
4.96 | 4 ratings
Live in Tucson: Pinnacle Moments
2016
4.33 | 3 ratings
Return to the Dreamtime
2018
5.00 | 4 ratings
Electron Birth
2018
4.00 | 1 ratings
The Sky Opens
2020

STEVE ROACH Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

0.00 | 0 ratings
Structures from Silence
1987
0.00 | 0 ratings
Space Dreaming
1987
0.00 | 0 ratings
Earth Dreaming
1989
0.00 | 0 ratings
Into the Soundcurrent
1997
0.00 | 0 ratings
The Electric Body
1999
0.00 | 0 ratings
Time of the Earth
2001
0.00 | 0 ratings
Kairos: The Meeting of Time and Destiny
2006

STEVE ROACH Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings
Quiet Music
1988
3.50 | 2 ratings
Now / Traveler
1992
0.00 | 0 ratings
The Lost Pieces
1993
0.00 | 0 ratings
Back to the Roots
1997
0.00 | 0 ratings
Dreaming... Now, Then: A Retrospective 1982-1997
1998
2.00 | 1 ratings
Truth & Beauty
1999
5.00 | 1 ratings
Pure Flow: Timeroom Editions Collection 1
2001
0.00 | 0 ratings
Day Out of Time
2002
0.00 | 0 ratings
Space and Time: an Introduction to the Soundworlds of Steve Roach
2003
4.00 | 1 ratings
Texture Maps
2003
4.50 | 4 ratings
Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces
2003
0.00 | 0 ratings
Places Beyond: The Lost Pieces 4
2004
4.00 | 1 ratings
The Dreamtime Box
2005
3.00 | 1 ratings
2009 Box Set
2009
0.00 | 0 ratings
Spirit Dome - Live Archive
2009
4.00 | 3 ratings
Quiet Music: The Original 3-Hour Collection
2011
0.00 | 0 ratings
Sounds from the Inbetween
2011
3.00 | 1 ratings
2012 Box Set
2012
4.50 | 2 ratings
Rasa Dance - The Music of Connection
2013
3.96 | 6 ratings
The Desert Collection - Volume One
2014
4.69 | 7 ratings
Structures From Silence (30th Anniversary Remastered Edition)
2014
3.00 | 1 ratings
Now
2015
4.00 | 3 ratings
Bloodmoon Rising (Complete 5-Hour Collection)
2015
4.00 | 1 ratings
The Early Years (rarities from the Empetus era)
2017

STEVE ROACH Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings
The Dreamer Descends...
1995
0.00 | 0 ratings
Live in Tucson 2000
2013
0.00 | 0 ratings
Today
2013
4.33 | 3 ratings
Light Of Sundays
2013
4.05 | 3 ratings
Skeleton - Spiral Passage (Extended Version - Live In Tucson 02-14-15)
2015

STEVE ROACH Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Structures From Silence  by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 1984
2.79 | 29 ratings

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Structures From Silence
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by Dapper~Blueberries

3 stars I always find ambient music to be one of the hardest genres to write for. Due to the lack of any really noticeable musical structure, most of it boils down to how the music feels, more than how it feels. It is a more textural genre. That being said, I think Steve Roach does a fine job in conveying a more textural experience. Sorry for my digression, but I have always been fascinated by Steve Roach, but never got around to actually listening to them. That has been changed.

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.

 Zones, Drones & Atmospheres by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2022
5.00 | 2 ratings

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Zones, Drones & Atmospheres
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by admireArt
Prog Reviewer

5 stars A dream withing a dream withing a dream....

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.

 Fever Dreams III by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2007
2.00 | 1 ratings

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Fever Dreams III
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by von bathel

— First review of this album —
2 stars Talking about Steve Roach's works is not simple. His sound is a totally metaphysical electronic environment, where the complexity is in the subtle and atmospheric. Of course, it is not for any ear. The listener needs to be aware of extremely sophisticated details and in an environment of relaxation in order to enjoy the inner journey that this type of sound causes. It is not for sleeping. It is to change the current half-schizophrenic state of mind to a more receptive, dreamlike and spiritualized state. Roach's music is deep, hypnotic, minimalist .It is not to be swallowed at once. It is to be savored sip by sip as is the case here as a reference for this CD by Brian Eno & Harold Budd (The Pearl 2005)Who likes Klaus Schulze, Eno, Tangerine Dream ,Cluster, etc. ...you will come across a beautiful construction of synthesizers!
 Tomorrow by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2020
4.52 | 10 ratings

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Tomorrow
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars There couldn't be a better time for American progressive-electronic/ambient icon Steve Roach to release an album such as `Tomorrow'. In 2020, we're currently living in a very difficult, unhappy and threatening period, where hope can be in short supply. With this release, Steve has taken another deep-dive into sequencer-heavy pieces, the majority of them side-long, twenty-plus minute compositions, and there is a constantly uplifting, even joyful vibrancy to the synth soundworlds he unveils here.

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.

 Stillpoint by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2019
4.12 | 6 ratings

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Stillpoint
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by admireArt
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Steve Roach - STILLPOINT (2019)

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!

****

 Trance Archeology by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2019
3.91 | 8 ratings

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Trance Archeology
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by admireArt
Prog Reviewer

3 stars Steve Roach has acquired through the years a personal way of electronic music expression, which somehow more than once is relegated for the more known and far more popular Berlin School related electronic music language as in his Bloom Ascension (2019).

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.

***/*

 Trance Archeology by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2019
3.91 | 8 ratings

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Trance Archeology
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars Along with a year full of fruitful collaborations and exceptional live performances, the best arrives from American prog- electronic/ambient pioneer Steve Roach with `Trance Archaeology', and what an evocative title that proves to be. The name alone hints at a fusion of earthy old-world sounds and machine-future sleekness, and this November 2019 solo set from the icon presents a continuous seventy-four minute suite of kaleidoscopic sound-collages that still retain Roach's ever-present humanity, where frequent rhythmic elements fused to their core are blurred into ever-evolving oblivion, with the whole making for a deeply hallucinogenic aural dreamworld.

`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 (Radiant Mind & Steve Roach) by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2019
3.87 | 7 ratings

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HelioSphere (Radiant Mind & Steve Roach)
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by TCat
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

4 stars Steve Roach is a Progressive Electronic artist who has released quite a few albums since 1982, some of these in collaboration with other artists. This is the case with his February 2019 released "Heliosphere" which he released along with an unnamed artist that goes by the moniker of "Radiant Mind". Roach has worked with Radiant Mind in the past, so their collaboration is not a new thing, and it is evident in these atmospheric tracks that work off of drones and ambient textures.

"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.

 Atmosphere for Dreaming by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2018
4.04 | 9 ratings

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Atmosphere for Dreaming
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by admireArt
Prog Reviewer

4 stars A slow burning one track bright, mid-tone and dark soundscape which, as its title implies, dwells into the highly visited territory of dreams or sleep activity.

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.

 HelioSphere (Radiant Mind & Steve Roach) by ROACH, STEVE album cover Studio Album, 2019
3.87 | 7 ratings

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HelioSphere (Radiant Mind & Steve Roach)
Steve Roach Progressive Electronic

Review by Aussie-Byrd-Brother
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

4 stars American electronic/ambient icon Steve Roach drops his first release for 2019 with the stunning `HelioSphere', a collaboration with Radiant Mind, another artist working in similar styles who prefers to remain anonymous. This is the third time that Roach has worked in conjunction with the mysterious Mind, and for this release, the two are perfectly aligned in the hypnotic, meditative and immersive soundworlds they weave together. Much of `HelioSphere' retains a constantly droning ambient backing devoid of rhythmic elements, and an array of exquisitely ethereal touches are constantly introduced throughout to take the disc in some very affecting and surprising directions.

Crystalline synths gently ring throughout languorous opener `Sphere 1', soaring surges tear around `Sphere 2' holding traces of unexpected unease, and `Sphere 3' manages to be equally haunting, lulling and wondrous as it gradually unfurls. There's soundtrack-like elegance to the gently sweeping electronic caresses of `Sphere 4' and `5', churning drones throughout `Sphere 6' begin trickling to life, and `Sphere 7' introduces lightly pulsing beats for a seamless diversion into subdued electronica. `Sphere 8' is then a final shimmering come-down that surprisingly slinks back to shadows and darker contemplative corners.

Those who prefer more compact electronic compositions or ones driven by percussive elements will likely prefer to look elsewhere, but if you have the patience for very abstract and subtle soundscapes (and, still, this one is hardly the most unapproachable or intimidating example of that approach you could find!), a stunning disc is waiting to be discovered here. `HelioSphere' proves to be a truly captivating and evocative work of atmospheric electronic ambiance from two intelligent artists, and hopefully there's even further collaborations between the pair in the near future.

Four stars.

Thanks to Philippe Blache for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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