Western Spaces

Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fortuna Records
• ASIN: B0000007TZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,486 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wide open spaces, December 3, 2000

By 

C. H Smith (Bowling Green, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Spaces (Audio CD)

This wonderfully sublime album comes from Roach's "atmospheric ambient" period of the late 1980s that produced 'Dreamtime Return' and 'Desert Solitaire,' among other works. There is a good deal of the Southwest outdoors that Roach loves on this work, and the pieces breathe with the same kind of expansiveness and natural harmony that made 'Dreamtime' such a success. The original release of 'Western Spaces' in 1987 included works by Richard Burmer; these are deleted in the 1990 Fortuna version. This is truly too bad, because one of those pieces is "Across the View," Burmer's signature work and one of the few ambient compositions yet produced that justly deserves the tag "masterpiece." Even without it, however, this one is well worth the listen.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring..., December 19, 2001

By 

funktion (The Synaptic Gap) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Spaces (Audio CD)

The awe and picturesque environs of the Southwest have long provided inspiration to writers and painters. What better way to bring out the desolation, expansiveness, and metaphor of the region than via state-of-the-art electronics? Roach, of course, was already investigating the means whereby organica becomes electronica on his classic DREAMTIME RETURN set. Together with fellow synthesist Braheny, Roach again uses his amazing conceptual acumen to bring out the desert's unrevealed secrets.
Listening to "In the Heat of Venus," you can also see the heat haze wafting sinuously through the air and circling the mountain's edges-a spell woven with kalimbas, woodblock percussion, and synthesizers whose sounds are burned amber-red. "Desert Walkabout" embraces a more elegiac, serene, and almost classical sensibility, shot through with Braheny's ghostly electronic wind-instrument caterwauls, mock-harp spicing, delicate percussives, and Roach's lonesome synth chords. Check your compass at the door, and melt into the horizon.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roach's first official collaboration, February 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Western Spaces (Audio CD)

Ambient/space music pioneer Steve Roach worked with other artists before Western Spaces, but this is his first official collaboration for strictly discographic purposes. Originally released on Innovative Communications (a label founded by Klaus Schulze, Roach's primary musical influence), the album contained contributions by Richard Burmer, who was cut out when the album was re-released on Fortuna Records in 1990. Western Spaces remains one of Roach's most beautiful releases--the solo track by Braheny and "Desert Prayer" are perhaps the best, but the Roach/ Thom Brennan piece "In the Heat of Venus" is astounding---I don't think Roach has recorded a more powerful piece of music since, quite honestly, though some could argue effectively against that I'm sure-- Dreamtime Return may be the only exception.