by Stephanie Sollow, Progressive World
1999
If you live in more northern or cooler climes, you probably have never experienced overly warm days, where the air is so thick it's like being wrapped in a blanket from head to toe - we'll, if it's a hot, humid day. If you have, then you know what Steve Roach is getting at.
Normally, the warmer it is (at night), the more chirpy crickets are, but even at extreme temperatures, the crickets find it too hot to chirp - or so it would seem.
It is just such a thing that Steve Roach had in mind as he was composing this piece. To wit, he says in the liner notes:
"SLOW HEAT evolved from the atmosphere of my desert habitat [Arizona]. There are certain times of the day wjem everything falls silent, as if the birds, the cicadas, and even the trees are under the spell of the heat. It's a stillness that ebbs and flows in slow, simmering waves..."
SLOW HEAT is nothing new for Steve Roach stylistically. It doesn't really broaden the pallet he uses and has uses, but the effect the music has does truly evoke the scene he's trying to create. Add in the chirps here and there, and you can picture this scene - hot, dry desert for miles, nothing visible on the horizon but low brush and cacti, maybe a few mesas in the distance, their strata bright orange and mellow yellow. The sky is cloudless, a pale blue that that has no definition.
I always find the best way to describe this kind of music is by the images it creates. Because there is very little variation in tone or colours, there isn't much to say that isn't true for the whole piece. The keyboard sound swirls about leisurely, undulating – a shallow breath as you listen to the silence, your body and mind at ease, the air-blanket feeling protective, not quite oppressive.
Because I have like nearly everything Steve Roach has done, I, of course, recommend it. He is such a skillful synthesist that even when he's playing a piece not unlike any of his others, there is a freshness to it. Perhaps it is just a subtle thing, a shift in emphasis to high light just the right mood. Whatever it is, those seeking out soundscapes need to add this to their collection.
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Steve Roach 1998 Timeroom Editions 1 (CD) Reviewed by Exposé, Progressive World, The Raging Consciousness Desk This is the first release in a Special Edition series that continues in the spirit of the infinite playback sound-world environments explored on THE DREAM CIRCLE and "To The Threshold of Silence" from WORLD'S EDGE. SLOW HEAT rises and falls, breathes in and exhales a constant flow of calming influence. Shaped over two summers of evaluation on Steve's patio playback system, the sounds of the warm desert nights were found to be in perfect tune to the sound-world playing back for hours on the speakers outdoors. These sounds were recorded by stretching 50 foot mic cables from the Timeroom out into the desert night, capturing a pure moment of natural magic to be included in the piece. Perhaps no other long-form piece from Steve has placed the listener in such an intimate and subtle expression of the sensual nature of the desert atmosphere.
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20th Anniversary Remastered Legacy Edition Steve Roach 2018 Timeroom Editions (CD) SLOW HEAT was the premier release on Steve Roach's personal Timeroom Editions label, which has now grown to 45 releases. This 1998 long-form zone represents an early example of Steve's infinite playback soundworld environments explored on THE DREAM CIRCLE and since developed into a substantial area in his vast body of work.
SLOW HEAT breathes in and exhales a constant flow of calming influence and serenity directly extracted from Steve's desert habitat. Shaped over two summers of evaluation on his playback system wired to the outside patio, the natural environment of the simmering Sonoran nights were found to be in perfect harmony with the SLOW HEAT atmosphere. By running microphones fifty feet from the Timeroom out into the desert night, a pure moment of natural magic was captured and woven into SLOW HEAT. Perhaps no other of Steve's long-form pieces has placed the listener in such an intimate and subtle expression of the sensual, expansive nature of the desert atmosphere.
This 2018 remaster by Howard Givens fine-tunes this piece to a new level by utilizing the advancements of audio mastering technology revealing the deeper, spacial qualities at a sublime level.
Limited-edition, 500 copies. |