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Steve Roach — One Day of Forever
(Projekt PRO426, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-10-04

One Day of Forever Cover art

From the opening expansive chords of “All I Know,” it’s clear that this haunting cyclical piece will be another powerful entry in the ongoing Steve Roach canon, a purely atmospheric piece that opens doorways into mysterious worlds not unlike many that he has opened before. But it’s the second track, “Slow Emotion,” that seals the deal, a mystifying dreamworld that shifts and swoops with beautiful intensity, a complex multi-layered sonic telegram that travels directly to the listener’s soul, a patchwork of elements that obscure one another while offering vague glimpses into what lies on the other side of each ongoing measure. Both of these first two cuts are well over nineteen minutes each, and define the ground that Roach is mining for this latest epic, which uses Oberheim OB-X8 and a Swedish digital Mellotron replica, among many other instruments, electronic and acoustic, all heavily processed. One might be reminded of his two-disc epic Reflections in Repose from earlier this year, though this is even more condensed — five long tracks across a single disc. “In Twilight’s Shadow” seems to recap some of the ideas explored on the opener, then things begin to change. In a duet with electric violist Linda Kohanov, new dark textures and mysterious semblances are explored on “One Day,” offering a mesmerizing and, dare I say, spooky hypnotic trance that guides the listener further down the walls of the great spiral, into the emptiness below. The album closer is the thirteen-plus minute “All I Feel,” again featuring Kohanov as well as Serena Gabriel on harmonium in a piece that in some ways is reminiscent of the opener, but with a stronger melodic presence. Throughout, there are no sequencers or arpeggiators, percussion or cadence of any kind, everything in this soundworld just floats beautifully like breathing the warm air of the night.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Steve Roach, Serena Gabriel

More info
http://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/one-day-of-forever

 

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