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All through Tomorrow (73:59) Steve Roach exhibits a continuing fascination with the sequential controller - the essential device used to explore his reiterating, pulse-based, minimalist music. Aligning this technology to his creative vision Roach's expansive work irradiates rather than occupies space. Across Tomorrow's five tracks synth voices intertwine in arrangements of gentle gravity, and take shape in portentous contrasts. Echoing and recoiling through the sound space lines of notes interweave in machine precision, as spiraling electric glides and cycling patterns blend perfectly beneath vivid atmospheres. Progressing beyond the aforementioned stretches of luxurious chords and spacey, shimmering accents the listener encounters tranquil zones for drifting and thinking. While we might not give a thought to the hidden cognitions that made these sections possible, the craft and artistry found on Tomorrow does indeed show a firm grasp of tonal organization and musical structure. Its recurring motives and expressive shades of sound gain a magical release for our thoughts - as disused channels of the mental faculty are gradually opened and lit up. When this kind of innovative expression first came into being, its first few listeners described hearing the future. Not the music that would be popular in fifty years, but a sound from somewhere other than the known past, or the fleeting present. It was of a time unknown to us, of somewhere else, of an age yet to come - it was of the nearest possible Tomorrow.
Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END - 28 January 2021
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