Dynamic Stillness

On the two-disc album DYNAMIC STILLNESS, Roach proves once again why he is at the forefront of the ambient instrumental music scene. His music can be likened to landscape painting--not overtly dramatic, but offering a subtle dynamic so that the listener is drawn into its aura. These are not songs per se; rather, they are soothing and mind-freeing sonic journeys. With only three tracks clocking at less than 16 minutes, DYNAMIC STILLNESS is an excellent album in which to get lost.|

The latest of Steve Roach's multi-disc releases for 2009 begins with one of his darkest, angriest musical moments yet. That may sound strange to casual listeners of his work, given Roach's explorations of contemplative textures over the decades, but the sense of dark depths he has explored since the '90s is more important now than ever, and this release shows it to the full. "Birth of Still Places," with its bass-heavy, shaded, and echoed growls in a dark void almost has more in common with Thomas Koner and Lull than anything else; if Roach has explored such areas before, he has perhaps never done so quite as dramatically from the start of a particular release. The song itself moves into a gentler ebb and flow as it progresses, but it nonetheless shades the album as a whole, exploring the more haunted, vast-sounding aesthetic of Roach as heard in many of his recent releases. The sense of slow, ominous, but still welcome rhythms remains crucial -- calling a song "Long Tide" is as good a sign as any to imply a cycle meant to be as close to eternal as one would want -- and if this almost seems like "just" another Steve Roach release as it progresses, it is still nonetheless one of his best in recent years, an embrace of a cold serenity that compels instead of repels -- and, it must also be said, it sports a perfect title. ~ Ned Raggett