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Remastered. A fine collection of unreleased and compilation tracks between 1988-92 released in 1993. The Lost Pieces presents an intoxicating flow ranging from his classic floating atmospheric period (Structures From Silence, Dreamtime Returns) to the dark tribal ambient direction (of Origins and Suspended Memories - Forgotten Gods). A treat for all Roach fans and a great introduction for newcomers. |
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Ephemera from the Roach canon. These tracks, spanning the years 1988 to 1992, offer glimpses into the various phases of Roach's muse, some of which ended up on compilations, some just moments in time suspended forever in the confines of an unmarked mastertape box. What these pieces lack in continuity they more than make up for in spirit. Remnants of the era of Dreamtime Return (After the Dream) and more documents from the primordial sound pool (Full Moon Prophecy, the live "Three Reptiles Wait at the Opening of the Underworld) inform a good part of this collection, but there's also works of errant beauty as well, including the poignant Since We Are Away, and the serene melancholy drones that end the album, Closer. Like most prolific musicians, Roach no doubt has vast amounts of stuff still awaiting formal audio birthright – hopefully this compilation won't be the last of its kind. Darren Bergstein |
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A collection of unreleased or non-album tracks Roach composed between 1988 and 1992 (a particularly fruitful period), Lost Pieces covers a lot of terrain. The Tangerine Dream-ish After the Dream was written in the wake of Roach's seminal Dreamtime Return; the drum-box-driven Mojave: At the Tree suggests Roach's collaborations with Kevin Braheny, composed between the Western Spaces and Desert Solitaire albums; and Red Shore is the kind of gorgeous, haunting soundscape heard later on Well of Souls. The closing Closer is an uncharacteristic bit of musique concrète, a solemn, experimental collage of grunting rhythm, slithering noise, and reverberance. Though not as cohesive as The Magnificent Void or World's Edge, The Lost Pieces provides Roach-heads with an extra outlet for their tribal-ambient obsessions, with a few interesting revelations.
James Rotondi |
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By now you will have noticed that I love Steve Roach, the artist from California who is broadening the borders of electronic music with every album he releases. This collection surprisingly comes from a small Canadian label just as Fortuna releases his new album "Origins". These are previously unpublished recordings, forgotten or thrown away, made between 1988 and 1992, between "Dreamtime return" and "World's edge", with the addition of an exceptional track recorded live. To be precise the tracks "Full moon prophesy" and "Red shore" have already been published in the cd "Inner landscapes". The difference of the sources in terms of time explains the profound thematic and stylistic differences in the selections: the oldest ones, in fact, are dominated by the rhythm of the percussion and by repeated electronic lines, while the more recent ones belong to the ritual ambient category, toward which the artist seems to have been heading for some time. All the Roach's artistry is present: cosmic fluctuating keyboards; dark percussion thundering in the distance; ambient noises; emotional expansions immanently at hand; the mystery of the ascent to heaven. "Three reptiles at the opening to the underworld", the live selection, justifies the purchase of the cd by itself: together with a percussionist and his wife, Linda Kohanov, Roach offers 11 memorable minutes, by means of an initial descent toward the mysteries of the underworld, a world where I feel more and more at home and to which I hope the readers of DL are descending. Gianluigi Gasparetti |
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2004 also brought Roach’s fourth “Lost Pieces” compilation, consisting of work that either appeared as single tracks in group albums or had never appeared before. These “Lost Pieces” now found date from 1999 to 2001, and are mostly in the majestic, vast spacey electronic style which is to me the quintessential Steve Roach sound. There are a couple of electronic-techno-trance pieces, such as track 2, “TranceFusion,” but the best of this lot by far are the two space pieces on tracks 7 and 8. “Slow Rapture,” track 7, cycles slowly round in a gorgeous ellipse focused on two fourth-based chords, while smooth harmonies float above it. Track 8, “Contained & hellip; Sustained,” is another restful astral beauty. Interestingly, it features some of the same big wide-spaced chord progressions you can hear on the undertracks from Roach’s BODY ELECTRIC, which was produced around the same time. This one’s a fine album and evidence of Roach’s consistency over the years. Hannah M. G. Shapero / Ambient Visions |