Steve Roach - Immersion:Four [Timeroom Editions - 2010]“Immersion: Four” finds ambient legend Steve Roach offering up a single seventy three minute track of soothing yet slightly mysterious, revolving and meditative ambient drift and ebb. The tracks built around this floating, drifting and almost ghostly synth vibe texture which seems to slowly blossom, recede, bob and carress around your listening space in a very appealingly harominc and relaxing manner. Yet if you try to grab hold of it and analyze it with you mind it just seems to slowly snake back into it self- away from any critical judgement or sonic quantifying. The best thing to do here is just let your mind float, bob and peacefully drift along with it’s slowly expanding and receding harmonic patterns. But if does try one to tie it down you'll find there hints of slow monition jazz vibe-ness here, along with arching and expansive blues like drifts- but none of theses are ever fully defined into true genre traits. As Roach is continual sonically stirring and mixing the sonic textures into a soothing ambient mist or fog. So “Immersion: Four” is another great chapter in this immersive and hypotonic series of long form ambient works which once more shows why Roach is one of the effortless master of the ambient genre. Roger Batty
|