Steve Roach

It can truly be said that Steve Roach is a pioneer in the field of ambient music, a frontiersperson who has helped to shape and form the genre as we know it today. Over the years his contributions have been numerous, from long form atmospheric spaces recreating environment and space to studies of tribal rhythms and textures and everywhere in between. Over the course of his career, Roach's work has captured our imaginations and inspired both our dreams and our waking moments.

With the release of his two latest works, "Life Sequence" and "Texture Maps" as part of his Timeroom Editions series, Roach approaches ambience from two different directions, each with their own unique style and form. From the sequenced, angular patterns of "Life Sequence" to the flowing soundscapes of "Texture Maps", Roach shows a skill and mastery of sound sure to affect his listeners in powerful ways.

As "Life Sequence" opens with the shorter piece "Lightness of Being", Roach sets the stage for an excursion into a more driven, sequenced style drawing from analog technology. From it's opening notes one can't help but be drawn into it's charms, beguiled by it's beauty.

This shortly gives way to the longer "Living the Dream", a study in percolating synths and patterned sounds laid over a percussive bed building to an intense climax and then slowly releasing it's grip on the listener with a slow chill out. "Sundial" continues along the same chilled vein, tones floating and sweeping through the track in a calm and drifting form, ebbing and flowing like the shifting of tides. Beautiful music for a Sunday morning...

"Sands of Time" follows, it's opening slowly sweeping through consciousness giving way to a more clearly defined pattern of tones. Movement is so subtle, so delicate in this piece as tones shift, appear and disappear. A masterful work.

"Destination Horizon" closes the disc, an epic longform piece slowly building on patterns and shapes introduced early on in the course of it's 27 minutes. Transparent, shimmering, beautiful.

In contrast, the "Texture Maps" release is a collection of more traditional ambient pieces from various points in Roach's career, relying more on oblique motion and the slow drift of shapes.

Beginning with "Gray and Purple", Roach creates an environment of organic soundscapes, rising and falling, passing through states of consciousness and inspiring dreams. Wonderful.

"Artifact Ghost" suggest subterranean travels, a haunted journey through inner space. "Spiral Triptych" brings together three separate compositions into one long form piece. Roach melts each part into the others creating an elegant, almost conceptual whole. I like this/these one/s alot.

The disc closes with "Soul Light", a recent composition recorded shortly after his recent "Mystic Chords" box set. A fantastic journey through space suggesting the birth and death of stars, the dawn and dusk of life, and a thousand other secrets that have yet to be shared. A fantastic work of space music sure to appeal to all fans of the genre.

Recently I was lucky enough to have the chance to talk to Steve about his music, about his influences and inspiration, and to gain some insights into the creative process and what music means to him. Here's what he had to say...

1) Your career has spanned most of the ambient era and certainly shaped alot of people's perception of the ambient genre. Having been one of the originators of the form, what sort of influence and what sort of inspiration did you have in the early part of your career? Do you continue to draw from those sources or have you found new inspiration?

My earliest motivations to create these soundworlds were drawn from non-musical experiences. The best way to explain this is that at certain points I could just feel the volume of life being turned way up, be it in a day to day setting or out in my favorite natural settings, desert, mountain or ocean. This vivid awareness that would bubble up became more frequent and intense, and it seemed like a natural impulse to find a way to express and bring into form these personal epiphanies. It was about this time that I discovered synthesizers. I was not a musician at the time, I was painting and more interested in the visual arts so the idea of working with sound at a basic level was quite inspiring to me. The first hands on session with the synths of the day seemed very natural to me, twisting knobs and tweaking sliders to shape the sound, it felt like it was directly connected to these feelings I was tuning into.

Music is my way in life. I have never approached it as a career, profession or a way to make a living. It so happens that my obsession to live in these soundworlds provides the means for those three things, but it's beyond that for sure. I feel that over time as I deepen my understanding of the creative process and experience more of what life brings, the music naturally continues to express this ineffable quality that everyone tries to name. Of course quality is a subjective viewpoint. To me, the devotion to one's purest expression will bring a natural evolution that can't be denied if heard with truly open ears. Maybe its not always understood by the casual listener or the ear of a cynical critic, but that's not important here. To me the hunger to create these soundworlds has evolved to a 24/7 addiction that I simply love to exist within. Staying connected to this process is the priority.

The source of this inspiration is the same now, but has become more intense and full of life with the ocean of memories and experience that I accumulate as I grow older.

2) How do you feel about the fact that you've become an inspiration and an influence of others?

It feels like a natural occurrence in the food chain of inspiration, just as other artist have inspired me over the years. It's an ongoing and mutual occurrence with artists and people whose work I respect. The basic truth is that I simply love to be creating in the soundcurrent as much as possible and eventually to share these discoveries, aspirations and resonations that occur in the studio or live with those that are interested completes the circle. My focus is the same as when I started, living an authentic life day by day, staying open to what's up next just around the bend, and making choices based on what's best for my own path and the pursuit of my musical art.

3) Location and environment certainly play a large part in your music. What do you draw from a space in terms of inspiration? How have different environments influenced your work?

The desert is my home in the truest sense of the word. I have never found any other environment that feeds me like this place. The long distance views, the extreme and often subtle displays of life, death and the display of time in motion are constant. By immersing myself in this environment and taking cues from its rhythms, its extremes of heat and cold, its profound moments of silence and the effect these things have on my own body and psyche, I find the music will often compose itself when I return to the studio. The idea is to not represent the desert in a literal musical way, but to tap into the invisible, primordial source that expresses itself most eloquently through the desert, to let that force influence my work.

These feelings would be difficult to capture in words, and if I were to try to plan a composition around them in some intellectual way, I would be sure to fail. It is a matter of responding to each and every moment authentically, instinctually and at a visceral level.

I can feel the differences inside some of my work that was created in different locations. "Earth Island" was created entirely over 3 weeks in Spain and Germany. "Solitaire" with Elmar Schulte was created over the course of a few weeks in Germany. Much of "Live Archive" was recorded in Italy and the US in concerts with Vidna Obmana, and "Ascension of Shadows" was created in Belgium with Vidna over the course of 3 days. These influences are really about the sharing of space and time with these sound brothers at the time. When traveling I am out of my comfort zone and usually pushing every day to the edge in the way you do when traveling and spending time with friends who you know you have a limited time with. This really adds to the energy of the music we are creating. For this reason all of my travels over the past years have helped bring another level of feeling to the music and helped me to grow as an artist, and again I have to say its about being taken out of the comfort zone, taken to a place where you're new and unfamiliar.

My new release "Spirit Dome" with vidnaObmana is a prime example of just letting go of all expectations or memory of where you live or will return to. It's a pure, genuine unedited expression of the moment.

4) Do you think that the recent proliferation of music making programs and software have opened doors for anybody to capture their thoughts in song, or do you think that it distills the art-form by giving alot of people voices without necessarily having the talent behind it?

This same basic question was asked 30 years ago by "real musicians" when the first affordable and portable analog synthesizers were first made available to non-musicians such as myself. People could start to find a way to express themselves in new ways as an artist in sound. For me the key to the door was a simple little Roland SH1000 monophonic synth. Fast forward to now as this sound revolution-evolution has evolved beyond what any of us could have imagined, and your question is even more compelling.

Still it comes down to what someone has to say and how far they put themselves into the soulful creative process. I grew up with the desire to explore and create sounds from a blank slate, Tabula Rasa. The tools at that time demanded that you create sounds from scratch and experience the discovery from deep down inside. This is what was so exciting to me about electronic music in the beginning, and still is.

The computer element that is now taken for granted, as it sits front and center for this music and our life, creates the biggest challenge yet as I see it in terms of the unlimited power to use your imagination and bring honest creative dreamings up from your soul. I could not imagine life without the computer now. In comparison to my little Roland with training wheels from 30 years ago, the power that is now offered to a guy who is just starting out fresh is comparable to giving the keys to the castle and beyond right up front. This offers overwhelming potential to open the doors for people that were unable to find the creative calling in a traditional music setting, just as the early synths did for me. Its a beautiful thing.

At the same time the current state of these amazing programs and workstations has become so all inclusive that a lot of the work I find really vital, fun and creative is already done right out of the box . This connection to the personal quality of discovery I mention above, the boiling up of sounds from your own experience can be lost in a lot of the current paint by numbers music programs and sample-loop library offerings. Its not the programs so much as the tons of seductive sounds and loops offered and shipped within. So much of this vital part of the work is already done in advance by the programmers, sound designers and loop techs getting paid to produce sounds and loops by the pound for a paycheck. I do see the value in this branch of the tree for film, TV, education and folks who want to have fun cutting and pasting a montage of pre-cooked meals together. For me where the trouble starts is when it bleeds over into a place where someone relies on these sources for the foundation of their "art" or a new ambient CD after buying or burning some disks of sounds that have no personal meaning at a deeper level, the result is parody product. To sum up your original question, its my feeling that the talent of a person with a passion and imagination to make something genuine will find it's way through to this place, no matter what kind of tools are offered.

5) Do you see your work as being divided into periods or eras, and if so do you think those distinctions are based more on yourself and where you were in your life or on the technology of the time? What would you say were the most significant moments in terms of each during your career?

The Music comes from life, and drawing from my answer to the first question is relevant here about my motivations to create these spaces. Adding to that, I choose instruments that are appealing to work with and the ones that I have a long history with are still my favorites, the Oberheims for example. The tools certainly influence and inspire in so many ways I could never explain.

Along my timeline there are points that spike up on the graph, off the top of my head from the 80's "Empetus", "Structures from Silence" and "Dreamtime Return" because of the breathing - organic and emotional qualities these hold. The 90's at this moment would be "Worlds Edge", my first recording living in the desert, "Origins and Artifacts", the "Suspended Memories" projects that put the primal mind into the forefront of the music, "Magnificent Void" - the crossroads of harmonic contrast, dark is warm and beautiful in my world. The collabs with Vidna because of the intensity we share, I feel this in "Well of Souls" especially.

Starting from 2000, "Streams & Currents" - finger painting with guitarscapes, "Early Man" - sonic archeology. "Serpents Lair" and "Trance Spirits" - acoustic and electric trance blend. "Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces" was many years of ideas and aspirations coming into form. Also about the time you will be reading this I will have released 2 new Timeoom Editions at my site. "Life Sequence" is a fascinating chronology of the sequence style of music I was quite drawn to early on. The release has 2 live pieces that go back as far as 1988 as well as 3 new pieces. They fit together in a solid way and it's fascinating how the span of time and technology is not really an issue when I hear it as a whole. The pieces all share a feeling that feels just right, it was a place that felt like a way to cleanse the palette after the intense time and energy put into "Mystic Chords". The other Timeroom release is "Texture Maps - Lost Pieces 3", this is all atmospheric zones with one lost piece from around "Dreamtime Return", a longtime favorite "Artifacts" zone, a "Void" era piece and a collection pre- and post- "Mystic Spaces". I think its worth saying with these 2 releases the constant theme in my life is working with a balance of dynamically different simultaneous soundworlds.

6) For the novice fan, what would you recommend as the ideal Steve Roach recordings? Any thoughts on which discs of yours would be best suited for desert island collections?

The most obvious would be "Space & Time", the intro disk I just released for the propose of introducing the music to new ears. I will leave the desert island list up to you, any of these mentioned above will work!

7) Thinking about "Time of the Earth", the Projekt DVD release, do you see your work as having an inherent visual element to it? Do you see yourself doing more work along these sort of lines, either collaboratively with film-makers or on your own?

Indeed, for me this style of music and my music has always delivered strong visuals on the mind's screen. For this reason, as much as I enjoy the marriage of sound and images, I still prefer to do my deep listening without having to be tethered to the TV set. The images and subtle states that comeup on my own screen are the ones I enjoy the most and "Time of the Earth" was naturally close to my heart with its desert theme. Over the years I have been a part of many visual projects, but its not an area I am deeply committed to at this point. I find the use of visuals are most effective in the live setting, and this is where I am putting my focus in the future, creating visual and light spaces that merge with my live work in an organic way. The live setting is where the visual aspect can really take it all to another level. The more dynamic volume and big screen impact.

8) You've worked with a number of other artists, released a number of collaborations. Given that the ambient genre doesn't lend itself as easily to the idea of "jamming" or "layin' down some riffs", what sort of techniques do you use when working with other people? Do you have particular goals in mind when you're doing collaborations, or do you let things evolve of their own accord?

The common theme with my long time collaborators in particular is that we all share this similar connection to the deeper power of sound. While Jorge and Vidna are quite different people the intensity and focus feels the same, and when we get together the intentions are just clear without having to really discuss much about the process. The music unfolds as it will.

Since the projects with Byron Metcalf and Jeffrey Fayamn are based in a blend of the more acoustic percussion zone, the roles are a bit more defined but again the understanding is just there. Somehow we seemed to arrive at this common ground that was shaped by diverse and similar influences over many years.

The actual process might start by simply playing off each other in the studio. We can find our place pretty quick, I think it can be compared to the dialogue that is exchanged between Jazz players where there is this understanding, a kind of telepathy, playing off the intuition of the moment, picking the right sounds, knowing how to listen and respond. This can extend to the new ways of creating and collaborating in terms of the non- linear approach as well, where we carve out our sound sources, grooves and so on and proceed to huddle around the warm glow of the computer monitor and proceed to make a mutual weaving.

The collaborations have the potential to take everything to another level. Considering I spend a lot of time in solitude carving away at sounds and creating the music, the camaraderie of sharing time and space and music is always a good time and it just feels natural to want to have a conversation with other like minded friends. I need the balance between working solo and exploring on my own. I really enjoy working hours and hours alone finding new sounds, creating new soundworlds which might be used later in a collaboration. Often the collaborations will include sources that we cook up on our own since these sometimes take days or weeks to create. Sometimes just the idea of getting together with a certain artist will help direct your thoughts into a different area.

9) Having such a rich history of releases one would imagine you've tried a number of different ideas, realized a variety of dreams in terms of your work. What are some of the challenges and aspirations for your work that you imagine facing in the future?

The energy and ideas keep building and mutating, there is never enough time in the day to explore the ideas and sounds. I can't be specific to what's coming beyond the ones that are already in the oven. I can feel a steady boil of ideas and experiences I want to express constantly. The priorities are maintaining a healthy mind and body and making the best use of the time at hand.