Steve Roach – Places beyond

1 review for Steve Roach – Places beyond

1. 

   Steve Roach – 2022-11-22

   With this 4th edition of the Lost Pieces series at hand, it’s clear more than ever that these unique releases seem to have a curious way of taking on an interconnected life of their own. An undercurrent of congruency between the pieces is consistently apparent in these projects and in this release, even though the pieces were created over a longer span of time and under unique and seemingly disparate situations. As a starting point, I will draw from a large pool of unreleased and lost tracks. It’s like shuffling through a large box of puzzle pieces looking for the shapes and colors from which to begin telling a particular story that I’m discovering along the way. It’s very much a mosaic, formed out of the richness that each piece or soundworld passage holds on its own. From there the combined resonance of the pieces starts to take over and fully reveals itself as a whole. Making the outcome more than simply a collection of pieces, this kind of process results in a structure, theme, and sonic storyline that could not be arrived at through other routes traveled on a tighter timeframe with specific intentions.

   Distant Signals (1999) — This piece was originally created during the time of the LIGHT FANTASTIC project. It was eventually released on a Various Artists collection on the Groove label from The Netherlands. Strangely the finished CD had a problem with the duplication master and this track was cut off at mid-point. It’s all here now.
   Trancefusion (2000) — I created this piece in the Timeroom around the time of the BLOOD MACHINE release with Vir Unis. It’s a weave of fractal grooves, short rhythmic elements blended to create a longer complex rhythmical structure. It first appeared on the Electric Body video release and on a limited-run compilation CD through Sequences magazine in the UK.
   Versions were also performed live around this time.
   Serpent’s Birth (2000) — Another piece from around the time of BLOOD MACHINE with Vir Unis. We recorded a large collection of pieces that never made it onto the final release because of the time constraints and final shape of the release.
   Resolution Point (1999) — This was a piece recorded especially for a multi-artist compilation titled CONVERGENT EVOLUTION on the now defunct Greenhouse Music label. Part of the hybrid groove was created with some rhythmic source elements from Byron Metcalf.
   Calm Before the Storm (2000) — This was recorded live with Vidna Obmana at his studio in Belgium as we were preparing to perform at the 2000 E-Live Festival in the Netherlands.
   Slow Rapture (1997) — A post THE MAGNIFICENT VOID space piece created for THE AMBIENT ECLIPSE, a multi-artist compilation on the now-expired Mirage label.
   Contained… Sustained (1999/2000) — This is a meld of two desert impressions, the first from around the time of THE AMBIENT EXPANSE and the second part from sometime after CORE.
   Light of Day (2001) — The exact origin of this lost piece is unknown, as it was found unmarked on one of many CD-R spools from over a 4-year period. I have a vague memory of the original space being created around the time of the CORE release, then later expanded upon around the MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES project.
   A few final brush strokes were added just before mastering in October 2004.

   2004. Steve Roach