Customer Reviews

Solitaire: Ritual Ground

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I have a new Roach favorite! The note said that this was the first time this album has been available for over nine years. And I must say that the cover is the most beautiful I've ever seen for a Steve Roach album, with its chocolate sundae appeal of a jutting rock and ancient inscriptions in the foreground of a canyon-like Martian background. "Solitaire: Ritual Ground" is a collaborative effort with fellow ambient artist Elmar Schulle, who performs with Roach on the didgeridoo, percussion, and assorted analog and digital synthesizers and drum programming. I was again able to use Steve Roach's ambient and electronic mastery as a modern anti-anxiety, anti-depressant and trance-inducing prescription.

For a while, "Quiet Music" was my top Roach favorite, but right from track One, "Black Cloud" (which is reminiscent of "Quiet Music") you are whooshed away with the characteristic, sonic combustion that make Roach and Schulle a wondrous team. "Turning World" on track two sounds exactly the same as "Dreamtime Return" and "Quiet Music" as if they were suddenly infused, syncopated and a little upbeat, and mellow waves of synthetic reverberance filling the back nicely. "North Sky" on track 3 is entirely original and entirely peaceful, floating and uplifting, but the waveform is entirely familiar, 7:25 long. I could not have imagined a better--dare I say it--sequel to "Dreamtime Return," better than Roach's "Origins" (1993) than at this point. Suddenly you are thrust back in time in "Rapt in Darkness" on track 4, with its haunting, deep overtones which contrast nicely with track 5, "Solid Ground." Pleasantly mellow percussion with a gentle, rolling oceanic sonic rush form a delicious mixture of two different worlds, ancient yet modern. "Runes" and "In the Forest of Ancient Light" on tracks 6 and 7 establish a deep and mysterious flashback to "Western Spaces," and again, "Dreamtime Return" that I won't spoil for you. But do not be mistaken. This a not a rehash of previous Roach albums, but an entirely new work, captivating and rare in its auditory appeal. "Solitaire: Solid Ground" is absolutely perfect for continuous, low-volume playback. I think they had this in mind during composure. Once again, Roach and his companions prove that he is the grandmaster of ambience.

This Cd worth buy not only for BLACK CLOUD,a good track used by MICHAEL MANN for his film HEAT,but also for IN THE FOREST OF ANCIENT LIGHT...absolutely stunning.Close your eyes and fly....

This music will move you. This CD has something for whatever you mood you're in---or whatever mood you want to be in. I listen to it while I'm working, while trying to unwind, or when trying to balance myself for meditation, prayer or ritual. A powerful connection between sound and soul.

German synthesizer artist Elmar Schulte collaborated with Roach on this album. It was reportedly recorded as a "spontaneous sonic combustion" (i.e., somewhat improvised), but it is an excellent album.

This album isn't the atmospheric, other-worldly expanse of Dreamtime Return or Structures from Silence; it is darker, more primitive, more "tribal"; still, it also doesn't feature the constant drum-beating of some of Roach's more explicitly aboriginal music, and thus still fits the "ambient" descriptor.

The seven tracks are:

Black Cloud (6:27)
Turning World (7:43)
North Sky (7:25)
Rapt in Darkness (4:40)
Solid Ground (6:43)
Runes (9:47)
In the Forest of Ancient Light (13:52)