From Synth & Sequences “The beauty of Future Flows lies in this fusion of the taciturn ambient works and those more dreamlike, more melodious from Steve Roach” It has been a long time since I that had my rendezvous with Steve Roach. Even if the shaman synthesist from Arizona multiplies the works which have all some similar structures, it remains in each of them a unique musical soul which differentiates Steve Roach from the other makers of ambient structures. The second opus of a trilogy to be ended which began by Soul Tones in the winter of 2012; Future Flows drags us into an experimental sound universe where Steve Roach manipulates the sounds by sculpturing them as a cabinet maker works the wood. The purpose aimed by Roach is to insufflate his music a spectral aura which will float in our ears as the ghosts of the desert nomads are enriching its legends. And his breaths of synth are always so warm. So welcoming, like friendly breezes which call us back to our inner feelings. On “An Omnipresent Sense Prevails”, they caress our ears with spectral harmonies that we perceive in the translucent whispers which float with a shaded lightness. There are linear movements and others more swaying in some synth layers which float of their long musical wings, swirling lazily above our perceptions. Making it, two sound entities are in confrontation; a calm one which blows like blinkered winds on a horizon darkened by its spectres and the other one more musical which floats such as seraphic rustles. But the one as in the other one, we are in the den of the Immersion series but with more incandescence. In fact, forget this and let’s rather talk about Structures from Silence, because “Spectrum of Changes” is a harbor of serenity with its pile of synth strata, as soft as musical, which float between two ears which cannot refrain from making a link with this monument of chloroformed atmospheres that is Structures from Silence. Surfing on the harmonious vestiges of “Spectrum of Change”, “Air Meditation” lands in our ears in a symphony of tight weaved spectral breaths which hum some air and float on breaths which became iridescent. The first crackling of an appearance of rhythm breaks out with an astral sweetness on the introduction of “The Texture of Remembering”. The shape is of electronic chirpings which sparkle in loops on the waves of a synth always very introspective. This marriage of harmonies and atmospheres to the paradoxes of the serenity brings some fine eruptions in the background which thunder dully throughout this concerto for snuffly locusts. And winds take back a little more vigour, concealing the singings of love from the electronic tiny creatures and concluding the 1st part of Future Flows. As much soothing as “Spectrum of Changes”, “Rapt in Night” stays the up at our sleep with the correctness of the god Morpheus while that, more aggressive, “Heart of Light” tears up the silence of its luminous oblong strata which float with so much acuteness as heaviness. “The Future Flows from Here” demonstrates all of Steve Roach’s magnificence to sculpture melodious shadows from the nothingness. There is a strange organic life which sparkles and pounds behind these morphic synth layers which waltz with space, embracing our dreams and making them float in vapors of ether. Some will recognize The Magnificent Void‘s airs while I hear the ghosts of Back to Life to roam in this wonderful anesthetic duel which quietly derives towards the serenity of souls regretted, to sacrifice itself in the hearth of very morphic and quiet “Regeneration Revelation”. The beauty of Future Flows lies in this fusion of the taciturn ambient works and those more dreamlike, more melodious from Steve Roach. And the result is exhilarating. We may photograph spaces, deserts and nature massively that a photo always emerges to enthral. And this is true year after year, travel after journey. It’s the way of seeing music of Steve Roach. Alone in his vast studio and surrounded by the atmospheres of an immense territory rich in legends and in astral possibilities, the magician of Timeroom shows the relics of a life rich in spiritual treasures. And to avoid the traps of the dead structures that he has put himself so many times into music, the synth man from Arizona disregards of the time, embroider new tones and plays on both reflections of his introspective mirror. An intense monument of ambiences… but it seems to me that I repeat myself! -Sylvain Lupari
