| Artist: Steve Roach & Mark Seelig Album: Nightbloom Released: 14 September 2010 |  |
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On Nightbloom (73'42") Steve Roach & Mark Seelig peer into darkness. This cyber-tribal album in five parts seems not real, or real in a different way. The human mind is the landscape of this work and these artists move freely throughout. Seelig's throat singing, producing overtones to intermingle with Roach's synthesizer sweeps and pads, goes deep - to a place without words. As resonant vocals converge with growling electronic tones a ruminative atmosphere forms. Moving further along the arc of this CD the restless energy of slow pulsing grooves lifts the mood. A sense of gradual momentum, neither outward nor inward, gives Nightbloom its primordial quality. Slow drumming patterns are augmented with imaginative bass bleeps, fat and wet from the synthesizer. The motilic sections always find their way back to the contemplative space - as the listener synchronizes with the music through its rhythm, only to untether during the smooth areas. In this manner Nightboom turns the mechanisms of the mind, then draws us back into the still subtle spaces. While this music may seem ceremonial, meant to conjure otherworldly spirits, it is actually more intent on deepening us. Roach & Seelig realize an intimate music - from one person to another, but meaningful to all.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 13 October 2010 | |
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