Steve Roach

While Steve Roach is well known for his prolific output of moody tribal trance recordings, and numerous collaborative works with ambient artists such as Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana and Michael Stearns, Midnight Moon is a bit of a departure. Roach explores new ground on Midnight Moon largely through his choice of instrumentation, although the finished work remains in a familiar soundscape vein. After two decades of recording with synthesisers as his main instrument, Roach chose to pick up the guitar for Midnight Moon, and has achieved some interesting loops and textures that veer in a fresh sonic direction. The resulting pieces are quiet, slowly shifting clouds of sound, heavily processed electric guitar and fretless bass sounds that unfold in thick layers. The album has a beautiful simplicity about it, revolving around a limited but interesting palette of sounds that Roach has gently coaxed from instruments more known for their volume and complex harmonic interplay. "Midnight Loom" is a 22-minute track composed of lengthy overlapping loops, reminiscent in feel to Fripp and Eno's Evening Star album. Other material on the album visits similar territory as the instrumental tracks on David Sylvian's classic Gone To Earth. A perfect album to sink into, and let yourself be drawn into the evocative ebb and flow of sound.