Customer Reviews

Quiet Music

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The album title means just what it says! Steve Roach's music really is in a class by itself, which is why I favor nearly all of his albums. "Quiet Music" was produced about the same time as "Dreamtime Return," and the themes are similar--except that QM was not recorded in Australia. This album is perfect to listen to while reading, writing or as a cure for insomnia. Roach's use of the synthesizer is nothing short of wonderful, and the sound he uses and combines with others helps me to rest and fall asleep when I really need it.

Let's face it, after a busy day, sometimes you don't want to deal with people until tomorrow. "Quiet Music" gives you a reason to do nothing, to change nothing. The ambience and crescendos of Roaches instruments seems to be tuned directly to my consciousness, like candy for the brain. When I listen to Roach, I never fail to put REPEAT ON before I press the start button. "Quiet Music" puts me in the exact place I want to be: quiet, peaceful and undisturbed. For me, I can actually see wide open spaces, clouds, nothing but total freedom when I listen to "Quiet Music." I'm not trying to be dramatic, I'm just telling you how it is.

In these senses, QM is theraputic. The various tracks are so perfectly blended together it's as if the whole CD is one big ocean of floating music. It can be effectively used to dissolve stress (especially while on the computer), anxiety and irritability. Roach knows what he's doing with his various instruments, synthesizers, woodwinds, and some he made himself. It's a combination of percussion and ereathral muscial patterns that is sometimes hard to describe, but Roach's music is strangely harmonious, synchronized, agreeable. My only advice is don't wait if you don't have "Quiet Music." Buy it today! My top recommendation.

When I saw the 1988 release of Quiet Music on CD I burst into tears. My cassettes of QM had become so worn I played them rarely. When I saw this version I promptly bought two copies. I was so happy to see all of the music on 2 CDs. Mr. Roach's music has been so wonderful for me to listen to. I gave a set to my massage theratist who fell in love with it. All of her clients are asking about it. It is perfect at filling space with, as the title says, Quiet Music. I have had Stuructures from Silence and Western Spaces on CD for a while and they fill other kinds of roles in my musicscape. This is the quintessential CD for the most reflective of times.

This indeed is quiet music, designed to provide an ambience rather than take a focal point. And my does he do it well...

I have quite a few of Steve's albums but I find Quiet Music to be the one I return to again and again.

Providing wonderful moods of ebbing synth washes it flows over, around and through you Air and light is serenely beautiful. Running at about thirty minutes it always makes me choke a little as find the imagery it creates to be on a very personal level. I'm thankful that Quiet Music finds just the right balance - not too uplifting not to dark.

Music to make one think.

Ambient music is amazing, no matter what you are doing, it totally stops the flow of time in the mind's eye. You could sit all the way through this amazing collection and not even realize you've been sitting there for about 3 hours. The music is transportational, it takes you to your own, tranquil, quiet place. It's different for every person, and many times different on every listen. The only reason it gets 4 stars is one track features waterfall noises in the background, which I find very corny and new-agey, and it defeats the purpose of trying to find your own quiet place. But that aside, the album is brillient, if you ever wanted to get into ambient, this is a great place to start.

Where Steve's more recent pure electronic works like the Magnificent Void seem to take us into darker, uncharted territory, his 1986 release Quiet Music stands out for taking us to closer to home environments with its subtle textures and airy soft sounds. Quiet Music was originally used as a tool in medical practicioners in the healing arts. Finally, this complete collection has been created, which combines the 3 works in the series in which portions were found only on cassette. This is an early, breakthrough work from Steve Roach which can an essential part of any music collection.

Ambient music is amazing, no matter what you are doing, it totally stops the flow of time in the mind's eye. You could sit all the way through this amazing collection and not even realize you've been sitting there for about 3 hours. The music is transportational, it takes you to your own, tranquil, quiet place. It's different for every person, and many times different on every listen. The only reason it gets 4 stars is one track features waterfall noises in the background, which I find very corny and new-agey, and it defeats the purpose of trying to find your own quiet place. But that aside, the album is brillient, if you ever wanted to get into ambient, this is a great place to start.

Here is yet another lengthy 2 disk set from Steve Roach. Potential listeners may wonder what makes this one important... This is on the opposite side of the spectrum from his dark, alienating pieces such as The Magnificent Void. On no other release is Steve Roach so comforting, well-adjusted and comfortable in the cateogory of 'new age'. Unlike some of Roach's more recent, strangely massive, overwhelming and alienating work, "Quiet Music" will take your mind nowhere it doesn't want to go. Effectively, Roach is playing it safe; he is not being experimental and ambitious... However, he is doing something he does well.

Thus, the album has its upsides and downsides. Like many have said, this works fantastically as background music; peaceful and entirely consonant, possessing the emotional clarity and simplicity typical in his 80's work. Beautiful major key synth washes and flute passages dominate a lot of the music, especially the 30 minute epics "Air and Light", "Sleep and Dreaming", and "The Green Place" (which contains pleasant, if cliched, nature sounds such as flowing water and the chirping of birds). These repetitive epics in particular seem content to express a quite bland and typical sense of New Age "peace", and don't hold up as well under focused listening as the more fast moving, short pieces on the first half of the first disk, which also seem to possess more emotional diversity and depth. I don't find these epics to be as distinctly 'Roach' as I'd like, reminding me a lot of Ambient 1: Music for Airports, which, while a classic and a great album in its own right, is not Steve Roach.

5-10 minute ventures such as "See Things" and "Something in Tears" have a lot more of the intensity, expert use of pacing and haunting drive that made Dreamtime Return a masterpiece. They seem more personal, and aren't afraid to take mildly ominous turns on occasion. They feature more interesting use of synthesizer textures than the longer tracks, which almost sound as if they could have been made with preset synth pads. For all of the these shorter tracks, I give this album 4 stars.

In general, I find I experience less visual imagery listening to this than other ambient music by Steve Roach or other artists... It's very grounded in the physical world and every day human life, although it's a much more relaxed view of it, obviously. It will not draw you into distant realms of space or into elaborate fantasy worlds reminiscent of the colorful cover art. To put it bluntly, it's not as 'trippy' as this man's usual fare.

In conclusion, "Quiet Music" is a beautiful, relaxing collection of ambient music, but is most definitely Steve Roach playing it safe, and sometimes feels bland and unimaginative. Whether you'll like this album really depends on which qualities you like ambient music for... if you're looking for an album of background music to relax to, "Quiet Music" is one of the best. If you're looking to take an interesting, challenging, engaging and surreal mental journey, I'd recommend some of Roach's more adventurous work... The aforementioned "Dreamtime Return" and "The Magnificent Void", as well as Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (part 1), and Early Man.

For doing what it sets out to do, and for the wonderful shorter tracks on the first disk, I give "Quiet Music" 4 stars.

I use 'Quiet Music' to quiet my mind after a stressful day at work. I can't take busy music at those times. I usually just make my home as quiet as possible. I put the CD on my ipod and WoW! Next thing I know and I feel like I'm out in a quiet meadow with birds chirping and a stream bubbling in the background. It's also great use to relax enough for sleep or do yoga. I use it when I write to quiet my mind and help me focus on my inner world instead of what's going on outside my window. The sound is soft, even fragile. If I'm in a loud environment, I can't hear it. I highly recommend.

I bought this when it first came out, many moons ago. Despite having heard it many times, I still find myself coming back to this album again and again. Its quiet, soft, flowing and beatless-perfect for relaxing, or reading, or napping.:-) This is actually more like 2 albums in one. The first disc is more typical early Steve Roach, along the lines of Structures from Silence, while the second disc is much more Enoesque. Both discs are very good, but different nonetheless. I highly recomend this to anyone looking for soft, flowing beatless synth music.

Since I was planning a home birth, I wanted to find music that would help me relax without giving me too much to focus on during labor. Roach's Quiet Music was my favorite of all the music I listened to during my labor with my daughter. It was a light undercurrent to my contractions, without much in the way of melody to pull me away from the music of my birthing body. I especially liked the first track "See Things", and now that my daughter Sage is a month old, I still relive the peace and spiritual calm I felt during my labor whenever I listen to that track. The rest of my family also likes this CD to relax or fall asleep to, and I would certainly recommend it highly to anyone. But I would most especially recommend it to any woman looking for music to soothe her during labor!!