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Reviews

Steve Roach — Long Thoughts
(Projekt 343, 2017, CD)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2017-09-17

Long Thoughts Cover art

There are some words of wisdom for the potential listener to this on the inside of the sleeve: It’s created for infinite low volume playback listening. This could apply to about half of the recordings I’ve reviewed by Roach, especially those that are long-form pieces with no real breaks, whether indexed into multiple tracks, or not – as this one is, a single track of 73+ minutes. Quite often I have played these long-form pieces in replay mode from well before sundown until my morning alarm clock ritual ends it the next morning. It’s not something to be listened to intently, because the slow changes, evolutions and repetitions within the music are too slow and glacial to be appreciated on that level, but rather something to be absorbed slowly over time and drawn into the soul, like some kind of cosmic nourishment to realign and refresh one's inner balance. The music on Long Thoughts is intensely textural, sparse on any sudden changes, and sort of flows around your body and mind seeping into all those crevices that the ongoing stresses, anxieties and overstimulation of daily life create routinely, releasing all that tension and opening the door to more measured and harmonically balanced approach to everyday life. You can play this once and feel your outlook change, play it twice and that change is further reinforced. Played in a continuous loop, a more sustained effect can be realized. Steve Roach has mastered this, and continues to produce recordings that beckon listeners to completely immerse themselves within.

Filed under: New releases, 2017 releases

Related artist(s): Steve Roach

 

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