Roach, Steve & Vidna Obmana - Live Archive

Year of Release: 2000
Label: Groove Unlimited
Catalog Number: GR038
Format: CD
Total Time: 63:51:00

As the title says, these are live performances of Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana together at various venues. The opening track, "Verucchio Invocation," contains didgeridoo and the sound of thunder. From that first thunder crack, the temperature where I was dropped, and suddenly I could smell moist earth and the dampness of a storm (it's July and hot as I write this). Sure, it's more me than the music, but Roach is so good at setting mood and atmosphere that it's 50% of that, too. But, of course, it isn't all Roach here - Obmana provides percussion and processed vocals. This track, and the whole Live Archive itself, has an earthy and organic feel about it.

As I've said elsewhere, whether Roach is alone or with someone, each pieces takes you on a journey. There is always movement in his music, even those passages that evoke stillness. Here at least for the first part of the album, it is a palpable movement - a living, breathing entity - the pulse of life and communication. You can feel the dynamics of each performance, the give and take between the two artists.

What makes this album a stunning achievement is that several of the tracks have been stitched together from various performances. "Verucchio Invocation" "Soundworld Collage" are the two such tracks, and you'd hardly notice that parts were recorded in Italy, parts in the USA, and parts in The Netherlands. They are so cohesive and flowing. Sure, studio wizardry accounts for a lot, but you have to master those tools, too. So credit Obmana with that, as he's credited with the processing. The production is great. Add in the fact that, as Roach writes in the liner notes, "Although we briefly discussed the structure of each concert, the music simply came alive when we took the live performance map outside any form of logical preparation..."

Although electronic instruments are used, the overall effect is acoustic. There are subtle sounds that echo the sounds of nature, making the music even more alive ... most noticably in "Soundworld Collage," where the instrument list reads: flute loops, primordial magma, deep trance grooves, brain rattle, and harmonic waves. Oh, and there's that most natural instrument of all - voice; in this case belonging to Obmana. So inviting, so enveloping are the loops of sound, the warm (very warm) tones of the didgeridoo?deep and resonant?the sound at the core of your being? that when the disk ends, the silence is startling. Like being suddenly thrust into the cold, naked.

I will add that some of the "atonal atmo" that Roach provides on "Tribal Perspective" comes across initially as strange, and maybe a little shrill ? but it's hardly a blemish on this fine release.

Tracklisting:
Verucchio Invocation (7:21) / Common Ground (7:38) / Two Reptiles (12:20) / Dreampipe Dialogue (3:54) / Soundworld Collage (9:19) / Ascension (6:57) / Tribal Perspective (7:38) / Divine Innermission (12:15)

Musicians:
Steve Roach - didgeridoo, atmospheres, flutes, harmonic wave, percussion, shakers, common groove, voice, soundworlds, reptile groove, harmonic landscape, fretless bass...etc.
Vidna Obmana - percussion, processed voice, harmonic wave percussion, finger bell, sonoran dreampipe, rainstick, etc.

Discography:
Moebius (1979) Now (1982)
Traveler (1983/1987)
Structures From Silence (1984/1987/2001)
Quiet Music 1 (1986)
Empetus (1986)
Quiet Music 2 (1986)
Quiet Music 3 (1986)
Starflight (multi-artist compilation) (1986)
Western Spaces (w/Kevin Braheny) (1987)
The Leaving Time (w/Michael Stearns) (1988)
Quiet Music (1988) Dreamtime Return (1988/2005)
Stormwarning (Live) (1989/1992/1999)
Desert Solitaire (w/Braheny and Stearns) (1989)
Strata (w/Robert Rich) (1990)
Australia: Sound Of The Earth (w/David Hudson and Sarah Hopkins) (1990)
Forgotten Gods (w/Jorge Reyes and Suso Saiz as Suspended Memories) (1992/1993)
World's Edge (1992)
Now/Traveler (1992)
Soma (w/Rich) (1992)
The Lost Pieces(1993/1995)
Ritual Ground (1993/2000)
Origins (1993)
The Dream Circle (1994/1999)
Earth Island (w/Reyes and Saiz, as Suspended Memories) (1994)
Artifacts (1994)
The Dreamer Descends (1995) Kiva (w/Stearns and Ron Sunsinger) (1995)
Well Of Souls (w/Obmana) (1995)
Amplexus: Collected Works (w/Thom Brennan and Vidna Obmana) (1995)
The Magnificient Void (1996)
Halcyon Days (w/Stephen Kent and Kenneth Newby) (1996)
Caverns Of Sirens (w/Obmana) (1997)
On This Planet (1997)
Slow Heat (1998)
Dust To Dust (w/Roger King) (1998)
Truth & Beauty: The Lost Pieces Volume Two (1999)
Atmospheric Conditions (1999)
Ascension Of Shadows - Meditations For The Millennium (w/Obmana) (1999)
Dreaming ... Now, Then: A Retrospective 1982 - 1997 (1999)
Body Electric (w/Vir Unis) (1999)
Quiet Music -- Complete Edition (1999 reissue)
Light Fantastic (w/Obmana, Unis, and Stefin Gordon) (1999)
The Ambient Expanse (w/ Patrick O'Hearn, Obmana, ...) (1999)
Vine ~ Bark and Spore (w/Jorge Reyes) (2000)
Early Man (2000/2001) Circles & Artifacts (2000) Live Archive (w/Vidna Obmana) (2000)
Midnight Moon (2000)
Serpent's Lair (2000)
Prayer's To The Protector (2000)
Blood Machine (2001)
Core (2001)
Streams & Currents (2001)
Pure Flow: Timeroom Editions Collection 1 (2001)
InnerZone (2002)
Trance Spirits (2002)
Day Out Of Time (2002)
Darkest Before Dawn (2002)
All Is Now (2002)
Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (2003)
Space And Time: An Introduction To The Soundworlds Of Steve Roach (2003)
Texture Maps: The Lost Pieces Vol. 3 (2003)
Life Sequence (2003)
Spirit Dome (2004)
Fever Dreams (2004)
Mantram (2004)
Holding The Space: Fever Dreams II (2004)
Places Beyond: The Lost Pieces 4 (2004)
Possible Planet (2005)
New Life Dreaming (2005)
The Dreamtime Box (2005) (incl. remastered Dreamtime Return plus New Life Dreaming and Possible Planet)
Somewhere Else (2005)
Immersion: One (2006)
Immersion: Two (2006)
Kairos (2006)
Proof Positive (2006)
Storm Surge (2006)
Terraform (2006)
Arc Of Passion (2007)
Fever Dreams III (2007)
Immersion: Three (2007)
Stream Of Thought (2008)
Nada Terma (2008)
Empetus (2008)
Landmass (2008)
A Deeper Silence (2008)
The Memory Pool / Revealing the Secret (2008)
Destination Beyond (2009)
Steve Roach 2009 Box Set (2009)
Afterlight (2009)
Immersion: Four (2009)
Dynamic Stillness (2009)
Spirit Dome - Live Archive (2009)
Nightbloom (2010)
Sigh Of Ages (2010)
Dream Tracker (2010)
Truth & Beauty (2010)
Live At Grace Cathedral (2010)
Journey of One (2011)
Quiet Music: The Original 3-Hour Collection (2011)
Live At SoundQuest Fest (2011)
The Road Eternal (2011)
Immersion Five - Circadian Rhythms (2011)
Sounds From the Inbetween Box Set (2011)
The Desert Inbetween (2011)
Soul Tones (2012)
Tales From The Ultra Tribe (2012)
Stormwarning (Live) (2012)
Day Out of Time (2012)
Low Volume Music (2012)
Back To Life (2012)
Groove Immersion (2012)
Steve Roach 2012 Box Set (2012)
At The Edge Of Everything (2013)
Spiral Meditations (2013)
Live In Tucson 2000 (2013)
Live Transmission (2013)
Future Flows (2013)
Rasa Dance (2013)
Ultra Immersion Concert (2013)
The Ancestor Circle (2014)
Bloodmoon Rising Night 2 (2014)
The Delicate Beyond (2014)
The Delicate Forever (2014)
The Desert Collection (2014)
Structures From Silence (2014)
The Long Night (2014)
Skeleton Keys (2015)
Skeleton Keys (vinyl) (2015)
The Skeleton Collection 2005 - 2015 (2015)
Bloodmoon Rising Night 3 (2015)
Invisible (2015)
Monuments of Ecstasy (2015)

Space Dreaming (1987) (VID, oop)
Structures From Silence (1987) (VID, oop)
The Art And Vision Of James Hubbell (1989) (VID, oop)
Earth Dreaming (1989) (VID, oop)
Into The Soundcurrent: The Musical World Of Steve Roach (1997) (VID)
The Electric Body (1999) (VID, oop)
Time Of The Earth (2001) (DVD)
Borealis (2006) (DVD)
Kairos (2006) (DVD)
Day Out Of Time (2012)

Genre: Electronic

Origin VA

Added: July 24th 2000
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.steveroach.com
Hits: 3188
Language: english