Return To the Dreamtime – 30 years deeper

Day and night for several months leading up to the February 2018 Return To The Dreamtime premier concert weekend I traveled deep into the essence of where this music lives in my being. Initiated by the process of immersing in the 30th-year remastering of Dreamtime Return, this inspired the desire to expand upon and present this music live for the first time since the early 90’s.

The pragmatic work began with excavating the archived sounds, samples, and location recordings I created for this project in 1987/88. The sources were still cataloged and stored in my studio, having traveled with me though many moves and different Timeroom locations over the years.

All of the essential sounds and samples were still in working order on 512 kb floppy disks and 80s-era hard drives for the Emu samplers. The original analog synth patches have continuously lived in my Oberheim Xpander as well. The technical side was just one part of the process in the reconnection to this pivotal time.

The live-in-a-studio-like environment of Solar Culture’s Galactic Center was essential in this recording; the energy of the packed in-house audience combined with the worldwide listeners tuning into SomaFM’s live broadcast supercharged the atmosphere of the space and momentum into this moment.

As these portals to the Dreamtime experience were opened, memories and tactile sensations of my time in Australia along with the epiphanies from then into now flooded my creative consciousness, placing me directly into this realm of a return within the Return.

Steve Roach
June 2018

Ambient sound-sculptor Chris Russell applies an experimental edge to the ambient electronic genre with ECHO, his second solo release on the Spotted Peccary label. Through the use of custom software and improvised tools, Russell has created a visually compelling sound tapestry that ripples and reflects with abstract excitement and curiosity. Focused heavily on sound design, captured field recordings, electronics, and found sounds, Russell’s sci-fi inspired audioscape is a stimulating aural environment of immersive spaces that calls to mind the haunting cinematic works of Stanley Kubrick or Ridley Scott. 

Throughout ECHO, textured and minimal atmospheres are layered with haunting effects, slowly morphing into melodic passages that develop from near nothingness to substantial and meaningful sonic narratives. As Russell states, “From the void, came the sound. This music is an experience with the intention to take the listener on a journey.” It is in fact a colorful journey emanating from the depths of an artist’s mind, echoing outward – yet simultaneously folding inward – through spaces of mystery, peace, tension, and solitude.

Madhavi Devi‘s first solo album on the Spotted Peccary label, THE TRUTH OF BEING, is a heartfelt musical reflection upon the cathartic experience of self-discovery. Drawing from her multi-faceted explorations as both a visual and musical artist, Madhavi Devi (Cheryl Gallagher) delivers a visionary album rich with musical meditations that blur the line between the tranquility of inner peace and the thrill of discovering unexplored personal realms.

The captivating combination of instruments includes an elegant blend of digital, analog, modular and software synthesizers, concert grand and electric harps, viola, ambient guitar, and Tibetan bowls. The result is a meaningful journey through lush sensual textures and heart-opening phrases that paint powerful scenes of exquisite space and expansive beauty. 

The music breathes naturally between spatial ambient passages and more focused rhythmic structures. Melodic suggestions overlay and interface with ethnic and ceremonial undertones, while sounds of nature provide sonic touchstones to ground the listener within the album’s sweeping etherium. 

Joined by special guests Howard Givens (ambient electric guitar, modular synthesizers, effects) and Stephanie Britten Phillips (Viola), Madhavi Devi journeys into the realm of the collective consciousness that unifies all, sharing space and time in a lush and complex field of mystery and revelation.  

Catherine Marie Charlton‘s  I Dream About This World: The Wyeth Album forms a soundtrack for introspective exploration, painting a musical world where the listener can escape this “busy, bustling life,” as N. C. Wyeth called it 100 years ago.

What started as a fascination and appreciation of the paintings of Andrew Wyeth (1917 – 2009) and the creative legacy of his father, artist and illustrator N. C. Wyeth (1882 – 1945), went on to become an integral part of Catherine Marie Charlton’s daily existence, life, dreams, and role as a mother, as Charlton set off on a three-year immersive journey to learn more about Wyeth’s creative process. Charlton gained insight from Andrew Wyeth’s son, granddaughter, and other family members, and also paid several visits to his childhood home and studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, as well as the Wyeths’ longtime second home in coastal Maine, immersing herself in the history and art of the Wyeth family. As composer-in-residence in Wyoming she experienced the Western setting where N. C. Wyeth had painted a vanishing landscape of cowboys and Native Americans in the early 1900s. In the end, Catherine Marie Charlton found her “authentic” self within this deeply-felt, lyrical album.

To achieve her expansive vision, the neo-classical pianist teamed with GRAMMY® Award-winning producer and engineer Phil Nicolo after discovering their mutual loves of visual art, the pastoral Brandywine Valley, and their shared passion for music that evokes deep emotional responses despite style or genre. I Dream About This World: The Wyeth Album features collaborations with several New Age GRAMMY® Award-winners — cellist David Darling, English horn player and producer Nancy Rumbel, as well as producer Will Ackerman.

I Dream About This World is comprised of mostly original works showcasing Charlton’s characteristic classical “crossover” pieces, many with Wyeth-like titles such as “Off At Sea,” and “April Rain.” Notable covers include “Die Luft Ist Blau,” a solo piano improvisation on a Schubert melody, and a world premiere of “Helga Suite: Chorale,” by pianist-composer Ann Wyeth McCoy (Wyeth’s sister). Beyond its classical underpinnings, the album’s distinctive sound — it could be described as a meditative, spiritual reverie — derives from nature sounds Charlton recorded on her walks, and instruments such as the Hopi drum, obsidian chimes, and dotar. Several pieces overlay Charlton’s piano and Darling’s cello in multiple overdubs as a metaphor for Wyeth’s exacting brushwork and his softly layered painting style in his preferred medium of the ancient technique of egg tempera.

Andrew Wyeth fans will appreciate the history provided by the album’s extensive liner notes, co-written with former Philadelphia Inquirer art critic Catherine Quillman, who personally interviewed Wyeth several times. In the form of an inspirational 80 page book that accompanies the music CD, the notes also include images of three generations of Wyeth paintings, Charlton’s nature photographs, and quotes from Andrew and N. C. Wyeth on the topic of creativity, hand selected by Charlton.

LOTUS RISING, Chronotope Project‘s fourth album on the Spotted Peccary label, is a series of musical reflections on Zen Buddhism. The ambient electronic character of the album is deeply rooted in lush synth textures and mesmerizing sequenced electronics, naturally flowing together to create mystical soundspaces seasoned with cello, Irish whistle, twenty-four string Harpejji, hand percussion, and natural field recordings. The wonderfully mysterious soundscapes of LOTUS RISING glide meaningfully through atmospheric undercurrents that range from murky and enigmatic to angelic and serene, providing a thought-provoking deep listening experience that evolves continuously with the passing of each moment.

Drawn from composer Jeffrey Ericson Allen‘s thirty years of study and practice of Zen, LOTUS RISING focuses on the poignant image of the lotus flower – which ascends from the murky depths of desire and attachment to bloom in the light of realization – as Buddhism’s most recognizable symbol. The album’s  eight tracks tell the story of an aspirant’s journey of self-actualization on the Buddha Way, stressing the importance of the moment. Allen explains, “Zen emphasizes the identity of practice and realization. Practice is not a ‘means’ to awakening; it is awakening itself, just as music is not a means to reach the end of a piece, but an evolving expression in time, in which each moment expresses an aspect of the whole.”

The rich textures and vibrant electronic sequences are hallmark elements of the Chronotope Project style, and those familiar with previous works by the artist will recognize the plaintive flute or voice-like sound of the musical protagonist that guides the listener through the course of the album. This instrument, the Hakken Continuum Fingerbooard, is a uniquely expressive synthesizer that anchors the listener in the journey and gives musical expression to the protagonist’s quest for expansion and self-surrender on the imaginative voyage through LOTUS RISING. 

With it’s many layered textures, melodic moments, and hypnotic rhythms, LOTUS RISING has much to offer the casual listener as well as those who delve more deeply, and its meaningful musical journey is sure to leave a lasting impression that will touch and inspire all.

Mercurius is a resplendent sonic expression on the psychology and spirituality of impermanence and finding comfort in the liminal spaces of the in-between. Moving beyond the security of naming the infinite nuances intrinsic to being human is just one of the threads of intention woven into this music. Composed in four movements, Mercurius is a soulful resonation upon the ineffable.

Steve Roach is a leading American pioneer in the evolution of ambient/electronic music, helping shape it into what it is today. Grammy nominated in 2018, his career stretches across four decades and over 150 releases. Drawing from a vast, unique and deeply personal authenticity, his albums are fueled by the momentum of a lifetime dedicated to the soundcurrent. Roach is an artist operating at the pinnacle of his artform, driven by his passion and unbroken focus on creating a personal vision of electronic music.

The ebb and flow within Mercurius emerges from its own space and time moving beyond ambient, immersive or drone-based pieces. Masterfully delivered, Roach’s singular evolving language of contemplative soundworlds arrives at a place of deeper refinement. Through the stately, profound pacing of chordal harmonic structures the diaphanous suspension and release of the four movements breathe with exquisite grace and depth.

After nearly four decades and 40 albums of ambient electronics, veteran Norwegian composer Erik Wøllo takes a different approach — there are no synthesizers! Infinite Moments is performed entirely on electric guitars processed with the diffused sustain of the EBow and layered note structures of harmonizers. No rhythms, only long, vast and engaging soundscapes. Minimal, extended and infinite in its essence, the album is a meditative inward journey of stillness and reflection — an emotional mapping of the mind, beautifully weightless and contemplative.

These six long, luminous and timeless moments are built upon multiple independent guitar loops of various length, overlapping and merging into slow drifting sections of continuously evolving combinations. Each loop was recorded live in the studio using a different type of guitar creating rich ensembles of unity. It’s a detailed musical language of floating guitars: hearing the strings resonate and vibrate between the fingers and the Ebow creates brilliant and sparkling tones that shine and stand out as unique and organic.

“I envisioned a concept using just a few essential instrumentations,” Wollo reflects, “with a minimalist approach where the melody and accompaniment are one. Each track has its own identity, yet all have a similar calm, longing and endless feeling. The color palette is essentially more reduced than my other work, and the tracks retain a similar suspended level throughout. Here are no crescendos or high points. This is not so much about a narrative telling a story, but rather more like a satellite floating free and weightless in space.”

Erik continues, “When I listen to these tracks with these ever-changing structures I experience a static state of mind that continues unchanged. It could go on and last forever never ending where time seems to stand still. It is very focused where nothing else seems to matter.”

Infinite Moments is a new adventure in sonic dimension from Erik Wøllo. It’s a contemplative solitude, a dreamy portal of shimmering and everlasting emotions.

Enjoy 60 minutes of music on this FREE ambient electronic sampler

This sampler features a track from each of the eight albums that were released during Spotted Peccary’s 32nd year in existence. Carefully chosen and thoughtfully sequenced into an album-length journey, the eight tracks move through a sublime 62-minute listening experience meant to be enjoyed over and over again.

Since the mid-1980’s the Spotted Peccary record label has remained focused on deep, vast and immersive soundscapes. From deep drone, to chillout, to high energy beats, Spotted Peccary continues to traverse the worlds of Ambient Electronic, Classic Berlin-School, Etherial Atmospheric, Spacemusic, Rock, Pure Acoustic and more; all with only one goal in mind — releasing outstanding music that transcends any boundaries previously imposed by these genres.

An essential album for ambient electronic music aficionados, Elevations marks a turning point in Erik Wøllo’s artistic direction, as it is the final statement in a series of five career-defining albums dominated by strong melodies and powerfully evocative themes. Built upon an ambient foundation, Elevations is a synthetic album with an organic heart that delivers eloquent electronic music, clear beats, and rich refrains. Graceful chiming themes ring out against ambient textures and delicate chord structures, while Wollo’s leading melodies are vivid, compelling, and full of feelings that call forth visions of lonely landscapes. Programmed beats drive much of the music, working in tandem with sequenced patterns – restful and set deep into the sound, often steeped in reverb or muted and distant. Elevations has a panoramic spaciousness about much of it – a sense of crisp, fresh air, the possibility of frost broken by warm waves of tones that gently suffuse everything like the sun breaking through cloud.

Radiant Mind is an artist working in anonymity with Steve Roach as the producer, interface and on this release, collaborator. Presented in 8 parts flowing forth in a continuous stream, HelioSphere embraces the sonic art form of pure space music – wondrous and expansive.

Radiant Mind first discovered the calling to create with synthesizers by finding inspiration starting with the formative early days of the pioneering radio show Music From The Hearts Of Space. Over time, Radiant Mind’s desire would evolve to create a potent blend of soundscapes for personal healing and extended mediation sessions.

Over the course of 2018, Steve carved on Heliosphere’s production, mixing and additional synth spaces; Howard Givens provides the final mastering.

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Pulsing with life and vibrant energy, TOWARD THE HORIZON is a striking collaboration that combines electronic music veteran Craig Padilla’s analog and digital synth mastery with the electric guitar wizardry of Marvin Allen. Working together for the first time, these two skilled musicians have crafted a masterful free-flowing dreamscape that moves through a myriad of moods, revealing the many colors of an ever-changing sonic skyline. Melodic and rhythmic, surreal and drifting, the resulting music is a timeless adventure through illuminating guitar tonalities and majestic synthesizer vistas.

TOWARD THE HORIZON is spacemusic in every sense. Hypnotic, captivating, dreamy, and vivid, the music drifts from electronic soundscapes to atmospheric textures, at times swirling and spinning through dazzling sequences and epic soaring refrains. Craig Padilla’s unmistakable deep-space synthworlds blend effortlessly with Marvin Allen’s textural electric guitar, blurring the line between the sound sources to create the quiet moments that make up the album’s ambient foundation. During the more intense moments, Allen’s powerful guitar phrases are a major force, punctuating Padilla’s refined and structured sequences that ricochet through the album’s sonic stratosphere.

TOWARD THE HORIZON is a recording project that began as a minor musical experiment and quickly blossomed into an alluring album that perfectly synthesizes the talents of two long-time friends who are finally collaborating for the first time. Padilla explains, “I’ve known Marvin since 1990 and I’ve always wanted to make music with him, but we’ve been traveling our own paths since then and never had a proper chance to collaborate until now. We began by riding the waves of inspiration and following our creativity to see where it would lead us.”

The two soon discovered their artistic visions were in perfect synergy. “It all started simply enough with Craig and I sitting down to see what might happen if we were to collaborate,” Allen elaborates. “It was clear from this first attempt that our chemistry was special, because eight hours later we had most of the ideas that would eventually become the album’s title track. We have very complimentary skill sets, and so while Craig and I worked hard at what we were creating, it was also very easy and fun to make music together.”

With TOWARD THE HORIZON, Craig Padilla and Marvin Allen have created an inspiring atmosphere of explosive melodies, classic Berlin school sequencing, electric guitar, and haunting ambient synthscapes that electronic, ambient, and rock music fans will thoroughly appreciate. From the opening guitar strain that shines like a familiar diamond, to the peaceful electronic meditation that marks the album’s exit, TOWARD THE HORIZON ebbs and flows with an adventurous energy; always moving, onward and outward through unknown realms, ever forward to the next farthest destination.

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Electronic artist Massergy makes his Spotted Peccary debut with FIRE OPAL, an inspired and colorful take on ambient music filled with evocative instrumentation and lush resonant textures. Recorded and mixed entirely outdoors, solely at night and in all weather conditions, Fire Opal is a hopeful and magical album of intoxicating soundscapes and flowing atmospheres.

Inspired by the fire opal of Mexican folklore – a stone that is said to have powers offering its bearer healing, protection, and safe passage through ceremonial journeys – Eric Jensen, Massergy’s sole creative force, uses guitars, synths and electronics to create a vivid sonic world where dynamic tranquility mingles with delicate ambience. Drifting layers of synth and ambient guitar are embellished by percolating patterns of keyboard, harmonics, guitar, bass, and an assortment of expressive acoustics, to create music that may bring to mind firefly tracers in a dark forest, glints of sunlight piercing gray clouds, or a warm crackling fire that shoots sparks of electricity into the night sky.

Using analog, digital, and hybrid hardware exclusively, Jensen performed, recorded, and mixed Fire Opal entirely outdoors without the use of sequencers, loops, software, or plugins; a computer was deployed only as a recording device to capture the performances. “My ‘studio’ is a small elevated balcony in the middle of a nature preserve, essentially my back yard” Jensen explains. “The preserve is home to several coyotes, owls, deer and other creatures. Think 2 a.m. with a huge sky full of stars, eerie moonlight, and the sounds of strange creatures. I can see my own breath, there’s a light mist in the air, it’s very sleepy; that’s the kind of atmosphere where my magical moments often occur.” Additionally, no sound edits or manipulations were made after the fact, so all of the tracks on Fire Opal sound exactly as they did the night they were originally born.

Alluring and captivating, Fire Opal burns with an irresistible magic, illuminating a rich musical pathway filled with mystery and tranquil beauty.

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On Atmosphere for Dreaming Steve Roach presents a masterfully realized immersive habitat that is instantly transportive, organic and alive. The verdant environment of hovering, sustained earthbound atmospherics comingle with a surreal processed Australian outback ambience resulting in a sonic ecosystem of tranquility and renewal.

This 74 minute longform immersion zone is an evolution of the pre-concert soundworld that quietly permeated the performance venue before the start of the 2018 Return To The Dreamtime shows in Tucson and Santa Fe, as well as experienced on the SomaFM broadcasts of the concerts. This release also shares its intention and spirit with the longform classic The Dream Circle which was also born as a pre-concert atmosphere before evolving to its current state. Atmosphere For Dreaming is designed for infinite looped playback.

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Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and soundscape artist Tom Eaton makes his Spotted Peccary debut with HOW IT HAPPENED, a sensitive, emotional, and introspective new album of reflective ambient impressions which he evokes with tenderness and grace. With its heartfelt blend of piano, ambient guitar, and synth textures, the album offers an escape from the familiarity of daily life, inviting the listener to slow down and explore the spaces and openings in the world that are often ignored.

HOW IT HAPPENED is a love letter of sorts, or more accurately a musical expression about love in which Eaton reflects on his own deeply personal and sentimental experiences, inspired by the various ways in which love has impacted his life. Each track is drawn from reflective moments spent along the rivers and in the woods of New Hampshire, New Orleans, Vermont, and Massachusetts, where Tom discovers new perspectives as he explores unseen paths.

Eaton invites the listener into his world with the slow-moving and mysterious atmosphere of the opening track, “Ice”, which clears space for “An Unexpected Opening” with its delicate piano and synth tones that slowly blossom like a flower cautiously opening itself to the wider world. This is followed by “MK, And How It Happened”, which has the feeling of a melodic yet melancholy memory that lingers, circling through time before giving way to the atmospheric mist of “The Slow River”. The quiet stillness of “Later, At Night, By The Lake” gives rise to a growing uneasy tension, while “Genezen” invokes a feeling of solitude, lost and drifting, yet still surrounded by beauty. The interplay between piano and guitar on “The Fog And The Lifting” offers a welcoming return to a safe and peaceful place before the floating ambience of “Until Her Eyelids Flutter Open” seems to momentarily slow time in an attempt to lengthen those last lingering moments of a wonderful dream.

Having spent the past 25 years as a full time producer and engineer with credits on hundreds of recordings, Tom Eaton is certainly no stranger to crafting delicate musical spaces. His pensive soundscapes stir the emotions and touch the soul as the lush textures and quiet melodies of HOW IT HAPPENED deliver a multi-dimensional immersion into the artist’s vulnerable space, where he investigates the amorphous connections shared by us all.

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“I focused most of 2018 investigating ideas surrounding my new album. I started by asking questions about tactile synesthesia, as I have long used touch and texture as a metaphor when I work with sound. This led me to start painting again, trying to find a visual abstract language that echoed the way I feel sound on my skin. This led to a double CD release. Both discs are quite deep and atmospheric, each with a continuous flow of sound: the first one more naturalistic and gentle, the second more abstract and shadowy. I suspect “Tactile Ground” will find its core audience with those who like my slower, more introverted work.”  -Robert Rich

Can we find a tactile ground, an animal surface upon which to calibrate our humanity?

Skin telegraphs sensation from air,
filtered from distant worlds.
Language constricts our sense of self
to an illusion of separation.
The verb of living, flux and transmutation,
expands outward from the middle,
concentric ripples on a pond.
We drop through the surface,
pebbles tossed from the shore.

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Sverre Knut Johansen turns back the clock, peering into the distant past on his fourth Spotted Peccary release, PRECAMBRIAN. Focusing his conceptual musical lens on the prehistoric development of planet Earth and its inhabitants, Johansen is joined by noted electronic music maestro and soundscape pioneer Robert Rich to create a deeply compelling ambient-electronic odyssey that serves as a virtual soundseeing tour through our planet’s vivid history.

Each track on PRECAMBRIAN takes the listener through significant geological periods and evolutionary events of Earth’s 4.6 billion year history, bringing the epochs and eons to life through musical poetry and recorded natural sounds. The sonic landscapes, both organic and electronic, are always deep and captivating, evolving through abstract amorphous spaces, peaceful harmonious moods, and dramatic eventful moments. 

The music is built on a foundation of swirling synths, pulsing electronics, and occasional rhythmic moments, creating a space where Johansen’s mesmerizing compositions are highlighted by Robert Rich’s piano and spellbinding voicelike gliss guitar. Add to that the recordings of environmental sounds, both natural and mechanical, and the immersive world of PRECAMBRIAN springs to life with depth, energy, and artistic vitality. 

Johansen and Rich transport the listener through the ages as they conjure sonic visions of a planet in constant change. The music evolves in a vivid timelapse that unfolds before the ears, occasionally pausing to experience key events along the way, before the title track ends the album with a sweeping musical epilogue that acts as the closing credits to Johansen’s epic geologic adventure. 

“The epochs on Earth are an exciting topic for me,” Johansen professes, “so I was inspired to create an album around the concept of the Earth’s geological time scale. The music is epoch-based where I try to convey with nature sounds what might have happened on Earth, creating moods around certain events that have taken place, like oxygen, birds, water, and ice.” Deep listeners may notice some of the real world ambience skillfully woven into the tracks throughout the album. 

PRECAMBRIAN is a stirring and enthralling work of art where synthesized and organic sounds mingle to create a beautifully detailed sonic journey. It’s a voyage through time in which Sverre Knut Johansen has elegantly condensed billions of years into a mood-based soundscape charged with emotion and wonder. While it’s certainly true that the entire geologic history of planet Earth is a lot to cover in a single album, Johansen is hopeful that PRECAMBRIAN’s music, artwork, and gorgeous 20 page booklet will combine to tell an intriguing story, and perhaps serve as a thought-provoking reminder of how important it is to be mindful of the world we inhabit. As he puts it, “Of course the album only scratches the surface of Earth’s 4.6 billion year history, but I hope it can help open up our eyes and consider what we are doing with this planet.”

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This special edition of Johan Agebjörn‘s full length debut, Mossebo, includes the original album plus two previously unreleased tracks from the era, all meticulously remastered in 24-bit clarity from the original mixes.

Named after the house in which Agebjorn lived while creating the album, Mossebo is a collection of ambient pieces composed between 2004 and 2007; and one additional track that was created in 1996. The natural feel and unpresuming flow of Mossebo highlight an artist in his element, as Agebjorn evokes human warmth in a wintry landscape, expertly juxtaposing intimacy and isolation.

With the stunning wordless vocals of Lisa Barra skillfully winding their way through Agebjörn’s lush synth textures on many of the tracks, Mossebo is both electronic and organic at its core. Understated electro beats lend the rich ambient atmospheres a subtle sci-fi motion that evoke contemplations of time and transit.

While he is best known as the creative force behind the popular electronica dance project Sally Shapiro, Johan Agebjörn proved for the first time on Mossebo that he is quite at home in the darker and deeper spaces of ambient music, as well.

From Johan:

“In 2004-2005 I took up residence in Sweden, in a 19th century cottage called ‘Mossebo’. There, isolated in the countryside, I started composing, mainly acoustic piano music and electronic ambient music, influenced by the landscape around me and the music by Biosphere, Pete Namlook, early Moby, Erik Satie, Krister Linder, and more.

The album ‘Mossebo’, named after the cottage, saw the light of the day in September 2008. This was the first time my solo music was released on CD by a proper record label, and therefore it’s a release that means much to me.

The Gothenburg-based vocalist Lisa Barra sings on half of the tracks. I met Lisa at an animal rights event where she performed some songs a cappella. She had the voice of an angel, and so I started to sample her recordings for my ambient creations. I sent her the results, and she liked what I did, so we started to record some new songs in a studio. Some of the tracks on Mossebo are based on the earlier vocal samples (such as the opener ‘Dulciter Somni’) whereas others are from the studio recordings (such as ‘The Sound of Snowflakes Touching the Ground’).

‘Siberian Train Part I’ was taken from an earlier musical period, 1996-1997, when I was 18 years old and made music with an Atari computer (as a sequencer) and a Roland DJ-70 sampler with only 4 MB of RAM. The longer samples on that track were recorded by me and my mum 10 years earlier during a 1987 journey on the Trans-Siberian railway.

This remastered version of Mossebo includes a previously unreleased track from that 1996-1997 era called ‘Unhappy Love’. The main melodic sound on this track was actually sampled from a Commodore 64 computer storage tape, played on a tape-recorder and slowed down a few octaves. This same sound was later used on ‘Dulciter Somni’ – and on ‘Kyrie Eleison’, another bonus track exclusive to this edition of ‘Mossebo’. ‘Kyrie Eleison’ was also the first track I made using Lisa’s vocals. Have a listen.”

Lund in May 2019
Johan Agebjörn

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Bloom Ascension is a resplendent expression of elegant futurism.

The rich melodic and rhythmic symmetry of this kaleidoscopic bloom of interlocking electronic music was created specifically for the canvas of time inherent to the vinyl LP format. Bloom Ascension‘s spiraling analog synth/sequencer-driven sound conveys vibrant energy and radiant optimism woven into the core of these living, breathing musical mandalas.

This is Steve’s first release conceptualized for LP since Desert Solitaire(1989). The timing is perfect for a statement like this — a natural expansion and evolution upon the sound of his recent Grammy-nominated Spiral Revelation(2017) and Molecules Of Motion(2018).

Following upon the momentum of those two albums, Steve notes, “Bloom Ascension grew from the inspiration to envision an album that’s the same musical experience across all formats (LP, CD, download, streaming and cassette.) In order to maximize the fidelity of the LP’s dynamic deep bass and crisp detailed high end, I settled upon a 44-minute canvas. This set up a time structure that empowered and focused the creative process.”

Handmade music cultivated on analog tools continues to be a staple of Steve’s sound. He reflects, “This 4-part suite engages the listener in the spontaneous process in which the music evolved; it captures the sense of urgency and the direct transmission of pure emotion I felt at that moment in my Timeroom studio. Working this way, the infinite detail and visceral sonic impact of the large format and eurorack analog modular synthesizer systems feeds the mental states this music activates — hyper-alert, expansive and kinetic, yet suspended and calm at the center. The album title itself draws inspiration from the patterns of symmetry and organic beauty found in nature, while on another level there’s awareness of the unfoldment that modular-based music is seeing worldwide.”

Steve Roach is a leading American pioneer in the evolution of ambient/electronic music, helping shape it into what it is today. His career stretches across four decades and almost 200 releases. Drawing from a vast, unique and deeply personal authenticity, his albums are fueled by a lifetime dedicated to the soundcurrent. Steve is an artist operating at the pinnacle of his artform, driven by his passion and unbroken focus on creating a personal vision of electronic music steeped in emotion and organic subtlety.

A unique petal on this bloom is the track “Synesthete” which relates to the idea of synesthesia: a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, such as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color. Steve recently discussed this concept with Psychology Today: “This new release embraces the fusion of being both a synthesist (one who creates with a synthesizer) and synesthete. This is clearly about the correlation of the sound-color-taste-texture and three-dimensional sound activation and immersion experience I strive for in my work. This is more than just my own relationship with this trait throughout my life, for years listeners have reported their own experience of synesthesia in my work. This release will celebrate this aspect of our perception.”

”Music certainly lives beyond any one physical medium, or ultimately no medium at all except for perhaps the atmosphere we inhabit. On reflection, this rotational music feels absolutely at home playing on the spiraling medium of a physical format, as if being generated directly out of the device as it spins.”

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The Gesture of History draws upon introspective passages where the organic texture and emotions of the viola play out over an atmosphere of engulfing mournful beauty. Delicate strings float upon shimmering, forever changing expressionistic backgrounds of processed viola, synth, and harmonium – profoundly sensitive and deeply moving. The modernist ambient compositions balance on the precipice looking back in moments of reflection and rumination while delicately holding the future in our hands.

The artists

For 33 years, Sam Rosenthal has been the songwriter/primary band member of the gothic/ethereal/ambient act Black Tape For A Blue Girl. Spreading his wings over the last five years, Sam has released 3 instrumental electronic albums including a recent collaboration with Mark Seelig.

Steve Roach is a leading American pioneer in the evolution of ambient/electronic music, helping shape it into what it is today. Grammy-nominated in 2018 and 2019 consecutively, his career spans four decades and nearly 200 releases. Drawing from a vast, unique and deeply personal authenticity, his albums are fueled by the momentum of a lifetime dedicated to the soundcurrent.

Shadow is an enigmatic violist based in Portland, Oregon. They perform in a number of local bands, busk at Powell’s Books during the holidays, and perform on the most recent two Black Tape For A Blue Girl albums.

The story of the album

Sam recalls:
The Gesture of History began with an instrumental I created for the Black Tape For A Blue Girl Blood on the snow EP utilizing processed and sequenced viola. The track features Nick Shadow, a fantastic Portland-based violist who’s been part of the band on our two recent albums. Soon after, I processed and structured “Blood ii” in the same moody, textural vein, and Nick played some live viola over the piece. During the mixing of To touch the milky way, I escaped from the rigors of that highly-focused work by creating the longer “The Gesture of History,” a viola-harmonium-synth track with a compelling, engaging flow. This piece goes to a deep, rich place; I sensed I had the makings of a great album if I could shape the earlier pieces to fit with the new one.

I fully admit that artists are weird, in that a listener might be satisfied with the tracks as they stood. Yet I knew there was something more I wanted to hear; I could sense it, but I wasn’t sure how to get there. To find a new perspective, I sent the tracks to Steve Roach and asked if he had some ideas and if he’d add spacial enhancements (processing, reverb, etc).

I’ve worked with Steve since 1995, releasing over 75 of his electronic/ambient albums on my Projekt Records label. We talk on the phone almost daily about art, experience, his music, my music, and so much more. Steve provided spacial enhancements on the As Lonely As Dave Bowman Pod and Monolith albums, and I played the piano on “In the Eye of Noche” off his 2005 New Life Dreaming. Steve is always creating, and I admire his ability and determination to live in the now of the creative flow.

Steve called the day after receiving the files and said he was instantly compelled to weave in some synth elements to “Blood i + ii,” I took the multi-tracks of Steve’s enhancements and synths and set about restructuring and extending the pieces; his additions provided inspiration to flesh them out, to fulfill the album I had envisioned.

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MEDITATION IN GREEN, the Spotted Peccary label debut of ambient electronic artist Kelly David, is a psychedelic musical journey deep into the heart of Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta. Guided by rich ambient textures, manipulated field recordings, traditional instruments, and a blend of cultural and electronic percussion, the album offers a surreal sonic sojourn into a mysterious land defined by the power of a river and its influence, where nature has always been the dominant force.

An immersive work, built upon deep evolving drones and dreamlike atmospheres, MEDITATION IN GREEN blends environmental field recordings with minimalist ambient textures to underscore nature as a significant component to the work. Subtly nuanced electronic soundforms inhabit the heart of the music as percussion elements ebb and flow, slowly winding through the ethno-atmospheric currents of sound, while thoughtfully placed micro events give depth to the experience, rewarding the discriminating listener with a revealing musical landscape.

Pure, honest, and undeniably introspective, Kelly David’s masterfully crafted soundscapes bring to mind misty visions of a familiar unknown. Tensions build and release as the music moves through moods that are both soothing and challenging. Gongs, bells and the occasional emergence of authentic Vietnamese instruments signify the album’s deep relationship with SE Asian culture. The mesmerizing timbres and imaginative sound dimensions place the music solidly in world-bending ethno-ambient territory where distant dreams of the past collide with futuristic contemplations, creating a memorable experience that remains long after the music is gone.

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