Journey of One: The Tribal Ambient Era: Live 1996

Recording information: Sacramento CA (11/08/1996).
Photographer: E. Katie Holm.
The subtitle of the recording says it all in essence, capturing a live performance moment in his lengthy career when Steve Roach was using elements familiar from such recordings as Early Man that could well be called "tribal ambient" in lieu of any other term. In that there was a strange parallel to those musical explorations in techno with similar names if not always intent, arguably Roach had stumbled across a particular synchronicity, but Journey of One follows no other logic but his own, as icy tones arc in slow rhythm followed by bubbling, dark percussion shot through with heavy echoes and unexpected additional noises and cascades of unintelligible voices help shape much of the recording. Sometimes a solitary distorted wail swoops through, something that could have been more out of Nurse with Wound than anything else. Roach's didgeridoo performances perhaps by default capture the unsettled yet captivating mood, a recontextualization where his rhythmic bursts on the instrument accentuate the slow, steady flow as much as contribute to it. ~ Ned Raggett