Spirit Dome

Steve Roach (Artist), Vidna Obmana (Artist), Roach/Obmana (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 13, 2004)
• Original Release Date: 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Projekt Records
• ASIN: B00011V8F4
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #477,524 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Spirit Dome, Pt. 1

2. Spirit Dome, Pt. 2

3. Spirit Dome, Pt. 3

4. Spirit Dome, Pt. 4

5. Spirit Dome, Pt. 5

6. Spirit Dome, Pt. 6

7. Spirit Dome, Pt. 7

8. Spirit Dome, Pt. 8

Editorial Reviews

Steve Roach / Vidna Obmana's 2002 CD InnerZone served as the doorway to the surreal environment explored on Spirit Dome. Recorded in one continuous 74 minute session, this is a dark sanctuary of pure texture and beautiful, if not at times foreboding, dissonance pulled along with pulsing beats, subtle loops and dense soundworlds. The single piece, "Spirit Dome," captures a chilling gothic ambience that offers the exploration of remote psychological states of awareness. This is achieved by way of extensive live processing of instruments including fujara (overtone flute), guitar, and the seemingly bottomless wellspring of electro-acoustic sounds found only in the soundscapes of the duo.

Spirit Dome was created live on the spot in room 314, Philadelphia, PA on May 24th 2002, around 1 AM. Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana were in town preparing for their performance at the 2002 Gathering / Projekt Festival. With only a brief window of time in which to work together before returning to their homes on opposite sides of the Atlantic, their reaction to the claustrophobic urban environment reveals a new dimension to their sound...

When listening to the recording unfold, one has to keep remembering that this unscripted spontaneous creation was a live session recorded directly to the stereo master, just as you are hearing it. No post production edits or overdubs were performed. Past discs from the duo include 1995’s Well Of Souls, 1997’s Cavern Of Sirens and 2002’s InnerZone; add their live concerts together in Europe and the US and we are brought to the enveloping world of Spirit Dome.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Their best collaboration since "Well of Souls", April 4, 2004

By 

dronecaster (Baton Rouge, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spirit Dome (Audio CD)

I must admit that I was beginning to lose a little faith in the Roach/Obmana mindmeld. While interesting in and of itself, their previous work, "Innerzone", struck me as strangely unengaging and uninspiring. That fear however has been put to rest with the release of "Spirit Dome", an improvisational performance that is clearly their finest collaborative effort in almost a decade.

Perhaps a quantum leap beyond "Cavern of Sirens" (Projekt, '97) and "Innerzone" (Projekt, '02) combined, "Dome" is a 74-minute exercise in darkly ethereal guitar loops (not too dissimilar from Roach's exceptional "Darkest Before Dawn" [Timeroom, '02]), subtle, almost subsonic and vaguely tribal beat patterns, and glitch-like electronic bleeps that dance like fireflys trying to find their way through the night. Parts of "Dome" bear a slight resemblance to the work of the electroacoustic duo Voice of Eye, whose "Transmigration" (released in '95) is one of the greatest recordings of ambient electronica ever as well as a stunning landmark of late 20th century music.

And of course, experienced listeners will also hear references to previous Roach recordings--the percussive loop on track seven resembles his work with Jeffrey Fayman and Robert Fripp from "Trance Spirits" and the overall interplay of textures without regard to conventional melody or harmony brings to mind "Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces." This is by far the most subtle performance by both musicians in tandem, with Obmana's wispy overtone flute notes combining with Roach's almost non-existent guitar chords; the music ultimately resides at the borders of consciousness like a dream, trancelike in the extreme. Overall, "Spirit Dome" is yet another gripping sound portrait worth being listened to by anyone with an either an interest in the work of these two esteemed composers or ambient electronica in general.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE OF DARK AMBIENCE, January 17, 2005

By 

Unlucky Frank (Lalaland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spirit Dome (Audio CD)

I prefer Roach when he goes deep into ambient structures of primordial form. The darker the better. And SPIRIT DOME is a slow turbid meditative swell of pitch black. This is one of my favorite Roach experiments since his remarkable EARLY MAN sessions. As an artist I enjoy ambient soundscapes for creative visualization and chemically altered states of consciousness. The first time I put this on I turned the lights down low, I turned the volume up, and I closed my eyes. The images that poured out of my subconscious were both beautiful and terrifying. It was next to impossible to stop the slow morphing rush of landscapes and forms without opening my eyes. Mind blowing to say the least. There is no other artist that I know of that is capable of inducing these states of mind without the use of chemicals. It's like a peyote ceremony without the peyote. This is why I am obsessed with Roach's music. (It's also quite euphoric when luminous fungi are added to the mix.)

Buddhism says, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The only words I can summon to describe this sound: the form of emptiness is materalizing and collapsing back on itself. The primordial soup in the act of becoming. But words are meaningless without experience. You must experience this recording. IT'S INCREDIBLE. Enjoy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Cosmic/Psychedelic....., November 5, 2010

By 

Joe Mugsy "The Old Geezer" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Spirit Dome / Live Archive (Audio CD)

...Turn on the black light...click on the color organs.....crack open a Moose Head Lager...fire up the bong & put these 2 cds on the ol' "turntable".....pretty cosmic stuff.....off to Never Never Land with this music!! Steve & Vidna hit the bullseye with these Live recording..real "Zone Out" music! Forget the world & all your troubles...relax..& listen to these cds. You'll be all the better for it!!!