Star's End Gathering 12

Friday, September 19th, 1997

8:00PM

"On This Planet" CD release reception follows the concert

Steve Roach Premiers "On This Planet" In Philadelphia Concert

Internationally-acclaimed recording artist Steve Roach will create an extended journey through extraordinary sound worlds during a concert celebrating the release of his much anticipated CD On This Planet. The performance, sponsored by The Star's End radio program, takes place Friday, September 19th, 1997 at Houston Hall Auditorium, 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. Tickets at the door are $20, $15 with WXPN MemberCard.

With over 30 groundbreaking albums to his credit, Roach has carved a staggering range of music from a shapeshifting palette of indigenous instruments, trance percussion, earthy didgeridoo rhythms and state-of-the-art electronics. In concert, the 42-year-old composer travels through a variety of moods, tempos and atmospheres to create a single, continuously-evolving work of ritualistic intensity that one critic characterized as being immersed in "a collective dream unfolding before your very ears." To this end, the artist employs a sophisticated balance of composed material and improvisatory techniques to tailor each program to the particular venue and audience involved, an approach that allows him to remain true to his own sound while developing a reputation as one of the most versatile performers in any genre. Over the past five years, concerts have taken place in a 13th-century Spanish abbey, a subterranean theater built into a grotto of volcanic rock in the Canary Islands, a number of European clubs and concert halls, an outdoor festival held in a sea of volcanic rock in Mexico City, planetariums and IMAX domes on the West Coast, an all-night rave in Baltimore, a medieval castle in Italy, gothic music festivals in Chicago, and a showcase for avant-garde composers in San Francisco.

The September 19 performance will celebrate the release of On This Planet with a reception immediately following the event. This is an opportunity to experience Roach in his most direct mode, working solo with a myriad of acoustic and electronic instruments as he moves through a dramatic range of sonic topography during an extended expedition that listeners will find variously familiar and relaxing, alien and challenging, and quite often, completely out of this world. In the process, he freely mixes ancient and modern forms of music-making that skew the boundaries of conventional experience. Roach spent over a year creating the elements of his epic, two-hour live show, then refined the best material to fit a brim-full CD that creates a new category of live recording---a studio re-creation of the live experience heard On This Planet.

As Wired magazine recently observed, Roach offers audiences an experience that "sounds distinct at each encounter, reflecting the listener's own receptive labor as much as the composer's active one. Roach gives us not new music, but new ears with which to hear."

Yet Another Philadelphia Area Appearance. Steve Roach will be at the HMV Music Store, 1510 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, September 20th, 1997 at 2:00pm performing live with didgreidoo, loops and effects. Admission: Free . For more information about Steve's HMV in-store appearance call: (215) 875-5100 Special Thanks to Projekt

To learn even more about Steve Roach and his music, go to his Web Sites:

The Steve Roach WebSite
The Projekt WebSite
The Celestial Harmonies WebSite
The Fathom WebSite

Steve Roach CD Releases
Steve Roach Concert Photos