by Marc Weidenbaum, Disquiet
April 25, 2003
Over the course of four full-length CD's, Steve Roach's MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES (Projekt, 2003) extends itself beyond the traditional realm of music. The sheer mass of sound - in terms of length as well as depth - is a challenge for listeners hung up on such arcane concerns as "song" or, for that matter, "melody". Roach refutes such preconceptions with a ritual hum that will resonate in the body cavity and the imagination as much as it will in the ear.
These four CD's are the result of Roach's long-running communion with his computer, which is no less a tool in his ambient toolbox than are his deeply echoing electric guitar or his pulsing, aboriginal didgeridoo. For more than 20 years, Roach has probed sounds for their essence, recording over 50 solo and collaborative albums in the process. MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES was made on a computer, but it is not computer music, per se. It is indifferent to the metronomic synchronization inherent in most digital media. Instead, Roach pulls pure cloudstuff from his sonic source material, sounds that never quite begin or end, but just float and flow.
The album alternates between existential epiphanies and industrial dread, and it's a triumph of widescreen ambient music that defies the listener's sense of proportion and scale. At a low volume, it's an aural scent, a background flavor; played loud, though, it's a whole other world, reproduced with detail and precision. Despite this otherworldly aura, at times figments from our world surface, as with the birdsong that enlivens the track "Wren and Raven".
 
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Steve Roach 2003 Projekt PRO142 (CD, Poster) Reviewed by Frank MacEowen, Gilles Bédard, Jim Brenholts, Hannah M.G. Shapero, Ambient Musings, Beneath the Icy Floe, Deep Listenings, Disquiet, Echoes, Eclectic Earwig Reviews, Electroambient Space, e|i magazine, Morpheus Music, Sonic Curiosity, Sputnik Music, Synth Music Direct, Wind and Wire MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is truly among the creme de la creme of Steve's distinct work. It is an astonishing series of recordings. At times I found myself facing the darkest of the dark in the collective unconscious. Just as I thought I had reached the edge of where I could go in my voyaging, a tonal shift would occur and carry me into a delicious and heart-achingly beautiful space of unparalleled hope and faith. These recordings are both initiatory, and a veritable soul-retrieval in this time of widespread soul loss. In essence, this is healing sound. Arranged as a collection of four discs, each is a stand-alone musicscape experience. Yet, as a full collection MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is nothing short of initiation, each disk building upon the energy of the previous one, opening out into vast domains and vistas, carrying us deep into subterranean realms of luminosity. MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is a vibrant topography, a map leading us to the dwelling places of sentient and divine energy." -- Frank MacEowen, author of From the Celtic Dreamtime, The Mist-Filled Path, and Chasing The Deer Note: The 4-Disc Set has an extra $3 shipping charge for deliveries outside the U.S. and Canada.
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Steve Roach 2003 Projekt PRO143 (CD, Poster) Reviewed by Sputnik Music MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is truly among the creme de la creme of Steve's distinct work. It is an astonishing series of recordings. At times I found myself facing the darkest of the dark in the collective unconscious. Just as I thought I had reached the edge of where I could go in my voyaging, a tonal shift would occur and carry me into a delicious and heart-achingly beautiful space of unparalleled hope and faith. These recordings are both initiatory, and a veritable soul-retrieval in this time of widespread soul loss. In essence, this is healing sound. Arranged as a collection of four discs, each is a stand-alone musicscape experience. Yet, as a full collection MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is nothing short of initiation, each disk building upon the energy of the previous one, opening out into vast domains and vistas, carrying us deep into subterranean realms of luminosity. MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES is a vibrant topography, a map leading us to the dwelling places of sentient and divine energy." -- Frank MacEowen, author of From the Celtic Dreamtime, The Mist-Filled Path, and Chasing The Deer Note: The 4-Disc Set has an extra $3 shipping charge for deliveries outside the U.S. and Canada.
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