This is the Digital-Only edition. Originally released in 1992, remastered & reissued in 2000 on Hypnos with the bonus live disc. VidnaObmana's 2-CD special edition Soundtrack for the Aquarium is the remastered version of his original 74 minute obscure, long out-of-print work created for playback at the Aquarium at the Antwerp Zoo in 1992 (disc one) along with a never before released live recording of the same material performed at Comopoly in Hamburg, Germany, the following year (disc two). Both recordings were re-mastered in 2000 by vidnaObmana. Many vidnaObmana fans have been clamoring for a taste of his more minimal, "pure" ambient style of Trilogy or River of Appearance, and those fans are going to love this one.

It is so hard, if not impossible, to categorize a band this good. Beauty and Bitterness is the debut album from Faith & Disease. I didn't expect this band to be so damn good. They surpassed my expectations, and cleared away my cynical ideas about bands I've never heard before. They have gotten a lot of comparisons to other bands, and sometimes get categorized as a "gothic" band. They are brilliant, just the same. Now enough of my raving. I'll tell you why they are so good.

This album will take you in, and you will yield to it. Dara Rossenwasser's voice is reminiscent of some of the beautiful voices of the past, yet still maintains an enticing quality and range all its own. Faith & Disease are from Seattle, but don't hold that against them. They rise above, by and large, all the other bands in this area. I can only think of a scant few other albums that have affected me so deeply. "Glassglow World" is my pick for the best song on the album. I love it, not only because it's fantastic but because it also dispels the whole gothic label. It amazes me to no end how much range Dara's voice has. It's as if she is a different person, a different singer, with each song. "Chandra's Lament" is a dark beautiful song that screams heartache and depression. Or is it just me? "Crown of Sorrow" is a congregation of different sounds all at once. This song includes the best line off the album, "Sorrow, she wears it like a crown"

Eric Cooley, who also plays bass, writes the lyrics with vocalist Dara. There are some of the best lyrics I've ever heard in quite some time. "Louise", the album culminator, is a cover song, but is still a gorgeous piece of work. With a band this good, there is never any need for comparisons or stereotypes. You simply have to find out for yourself how good they are. They are a great, shining hope in the music world of boring, talentless, tone-deaf people that seem to have captured the market as of late. Gentle, abiding and mesmerizing, Faith & Disease are worthy of your attention.
-JAQUORANDA magazine 1995

(press quote from www.projekt-records.com)

Journey of One is a pinnacle live performance captured during the zenith of Steve Roach's rich tribal-ambient origins of the mid-1990s. The music rises from the darkness, an ancient voice chants in serpentine ecstasy only to subside and hover next to silence, soon broken by raging hybrid trance grooves, didgeridoo and mind-altering soundscapes that mesh to form a soundtrack for a future-primal culture. Journey of One is an ascent into the mystical and primordial places Roach first developed on Dreamtime Return, Artifacts, Origins, World's Edge and his Suspended Memories collaborations. This 2-CD set unfolds like the genesis of this influential sound.

Roach meticulously, passionately utilizes the electro-acoustic nature that is the heart of this sound: earthy ferocity and multi-timbral frequencies drawn out to their fullest. This music shapeshifts between moods, always rushing forward engaging a range of electronic and acoustic tools: analog and digital synths, clay water pots percussion, butterfly cocoons and seed pod shakers, & ocarinas. The didgeridoos's hoary human-vocal sonic quality and a tumbling avalanche of hand-struck percussion further illustrate the tribalistic canvas.

"Roach conjures up stirring, metaphysical sounds and deeply inventive events from his electro-acoustic arsenal. It's an exploration of worlds simultaneously ancient, mystic and subconscious: the fourth, fifth, and infinite worlds beyond. These must surely have been the sounds ancient cultures rehearsed while the continental plates shifted below them." -Muze (about Steve's mid-90's releases)

The world of Journey of One is immersed in striking, expansive landscapes and deeply entrenched rhythms permeated throughout by a darker, impending resonance, an exhibition of emerging primordial life teeming below an underbelly of gelatinous rhythms and tumultuous waves of electronics, up through the massive ambience and vast subterranean realms. All of these disparate elements are brought together on the ritual ground that is Journey of One.

Roach has performed and recorded hundreds of live concerts worldwide over the years. The performance preserved as Journey of One proves to be an essential timeless moment. Held in an intimate setting in Sacramento, California in 1996, yet sounding like it was recorded today, this concert is presented exactly as it arose, without edits or treatments in the studio.

"All of my music is audiobiographical in many ways," Roach reflects. "It comes from life, from higher arcing desires and dreams joined by the events and moments found in the day-to-day experience of being alive. Through it all, Journey of One is a living record of my time on the creative path that started many years ago. These releases are sign posts at points along the way, the journey of one man rapt in sound."

This release is a stunning testament to the amazing live experience that Roach has developed over the years and a first-hand look at one of the original proponents of the tribal-ambient sound in action.

Back To Life is a masterful expression drawing from the deep end of Steve Roach's mythic imagination: an enveloping experience of vast beauty and mystery.

Described by Steve as a new phase of his long-form symphonic ambient works, this direction has been evolving over the course of the benchmark releases Magnificent Void, Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces, Dynamic Stillness and Sigh of Ages. The symphonic comparison comes from the presence of movements and passages along with reoccurring themes created from sounds and textures. These harmonically rich, multi-layered pieces breathe with an elemental ebb and flow and seem to contain an energy from within that builds with each listening experience.

Back To Life speaks directly to the the multi-nuanced, non-verbal portion of our perception. The pieces draw nourishment from the essence of nature, the timeless expressions of the human experience in art and music, the sharing of life’s beauty in wordless wonder-filled reflections and reveries in the amber light of the waning sunset. Back to the subtle beauty of life, indeed.

In early 2011 Roach returned to the studio to place complete focus on composing, creating new sounds, and "hitting the reset button on the foundation of my life beyond music." Through this personal reset, Roach forged deeper into his devotion to the rarified soundcurrent connection that runs constant through all of his work and that is recognized and appreciated by his audience worldwide.

The Shaman's Heart II is an entrancing 70-minute shamanic journey of uninterrupted, evolving tribal-trance drumming and percussion that continuously builds in rhythmic complexity and dynamic intensity. Byron is joined by Steve Roach who provides the harmonic and textural psychotropic stew created from a rich, organic and analog blend. The alchemy with the percussion results in an ecstasy that helps hold the space for the listener to journey far and deep into powerful and sustained shamanic states of consciousness. The journey culminates in a bursting forth through the full spectrum portal of pure existence – returning safely home to the heart-centered presence and potential of the true self.

The continuous heartbeat rhythm, medicine rattles, heart and soul activating trance drumming, combines with Steve’s sonic mastery and deep didgeridoo to firmly anchor the entire journey to the listener’s own sonically-driven trajectory. Repeated use of this music in a personal ritual or ceremonial context will enhance the heart’s capacities for love, compassion, courage, power, and strength.

With focused and clear intention, this sonic call to adventure draws on the traditional shamanic model that is proven over the eons to open the primal mind to access all levels of human experience including the upper, middle, and lower worlds of the shamanic landscape and various transpersonal realms of reality. The Shaman's Heart II is a powerful and potent shamanic journey that invites the listener to make full contact with their heart – their own inner wisdom and various non-physical helpers, guides and allies, to reveal, release, heal and transform the habitual patterns and blocks that inhibit and stifle their growth and creative energies.

In 1986, Black Tape For A Blue Girl's darkly mesmerizing debut The Rope appeared on the underground rock scene. It kicked off a rich and diverse musical career for Projekt founder / Blacktape songwriter Sam Rosenthal. Now 25 years later, Projekt celebrates this momentous anniversary with The Rope 25, a 2-CD set including The Rope re-mastered and a bonus disc of current Projekt artists' reinterpretations of the material.

On Disc 2, the current Black Tape For A Blue Girl line-up performs "Memory, Uncaring Friend" as a driving rock song, equal parts Bauhaus, Gary Numan and a darkly-caffeinated Sinatra. "Working with Brian of the Dresden Dolls on drums and guitar," Rosenthal says, "we captured the song as I would have performed it if live in '86. It's aggressive, brash, tense and loud! All elements that a song about betrayal and self-destruction require. Athan Maroulis' vocals reflect back to Oscar's performance while giving the song new drama and immediacy."

Other equally innovative reinterpretations include All My Faith Lost's neo-classical "The Rope," Mirabilis' haunting a capella "The Floor Was Hard But Home," Lux Interna's neo-folk "We Return," Attrition's dark, electronic "Memory, Uncaring Friend," and Erik Wollo's electronic/soundtracky "Within These Walls." A poignant moment is when Walter Holland re-works the original multi-track recording of "Seven Days til Sunrise," as this track features the clarinet of his late musical partner Richard Watson from the band Amber Route. Hand-picked and sequenced by Rosenthal, this second disc looks back at The Rope while projecting the songs into modern times.

In 1986, Black Tape For A Blue Girl's darkly mesmerizing debut The Rope appeared on the underground rock scene. It kicked off a rich and diverse musical career for Projekt founder / Blacktape songwriter Sam Rosenthal. Now 25 years later, Projekt celebrates this momentous anniversary with The Rope 25, a 2-CD set including The Rope re-mastered and a bonus disc of current Projekt artists' reinterpretations of the material. Eight-page lyrics booklet included while supplies last, so order now! Rosenthal's electronics coupled with his angst-filled, introspective lyrics established Black Tape For A Blue Girl's position beyond the traditional "gothic" sound. His lyrics overflow with the emptiness of a shattered soul and broken heart revealing a dark, tortured man scanning the wreckage in search of love, understanding, and connection. The timeless blend of Oscar Herrera's passionate vocals intertwining with warm electronic soundscapes and soothing ambient passages creates an album similar to 80’s-era releases on 4AD and Factory Records.

Opening the album is the rhythmic, hard-hitting "Memory Uncaring Friend," along the lines of Peter Murphy or Gang of Four. Following this striking opener, the music takes a more subtle turn: gently disorienting, autumnal, mesmerizing, mournful, full of wonder and elusive grandeur. Upon The Rope's release, comparisons were made to Cocteau Twins, Brian Eno, Phillip Glass and Chris & Cosey.

In 1986, Star Hits magazine wrote, "Black Tape For A Blue Girl's The Rope is like the musical equivalent of a nervous breakdown. Complete with dark, scary lyrics that make The Smiths sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks, this might give you an idea of what mental anguish sounds like. It is an experiment worth hearing." Option Magazine speculated, "The lyrics are of a masochistic nature, which reflects a probable suicide in the writer's future. Sung by and for those in love with self-misery." Many of the lyrics (and accompanying stories with the instrumentals) on The Rope dwell upon suicide as a response to a lack of love; an attempt to derive affirmation after the writer had left. "I cared for you more than you ever knew, I do this to show you now." Oscar sings on the title track. "I see my answer on the end of a rope, the world turned cold for me." While the final song - "We Return" - looks to others in a similar situation as a solace for the pain and emptiness. "From the black house, we return. Clutching secrets, we must learn." A glimmer of hope.

For the first time ever, the meditative, ambient minimalism of the Quiet Music series is available in its entirety in a 3-CD digi-pak release. Originally released in the mid-'80s on cassette and later in a truncated 2-CD edition, Quiet Music (The Original 3-Hour Collection) presents this landmark album as Roach envisioned it.

Quiet Music is a collection of pieces created between 1983 and 1986 in respect for silence. The gentle electronics of Roach's synthesizers mix with flute, electric piano and sounds of nature flowing like breath, enveloping the listener in a sustained, delicate, translucent atmosphere.

Jim Brenholts, allmusic.com: "Quiet Music is the essence of pure, meditative ambience. Steve Roach has always been a visionary performer; his work defines 'elegant futurism.' He released these on cassette in 1986, and it remains in the forefront of introspective minimalism. This series set the stage for all minimalists to follow. He was one of the first to demonstrate that ambient minimalism does not have to be dark, that it can be bright and hopeful without becoming maudlin or too new age. This is groundbreaking space music from an epic and legendary performer. He is peerless in his corner of the perpendicular universe."

Much of this music began as a series of early-'80s recordings commissioned by healing-arts programs and later used for everything from personal meditation to birthing music. Today these pieces still stand as a cornerstone in body-work, yoga, and healing therapies.

The enduring nature of this music is even more significent when placed in the context of the '80s climate from which it originated. "In looking at the arc of my music, nearly 30 years after creating Quiet Music," Roach reflects, “I still feel an unbroken connection to this same inner breath and pulse I was discovering within myself and my creative life at that time. Even with everything that was going on in the early '80s -- musically, culturally, politically - this music came to exist in its own dimension, outside of that time, separate from the day-to-day climate in which I was surrounded. I was yearning to express a timeless and universal soul-tone, a safe haven within the music. I had tapped into a reliable way to access this quiet repose at several favorite getaways in nature which was the main influence of this music."

Harold Budd, September 29, 1986: "I think Steve Roach's Quiet Music is his best album. It's not that it's simply pretty (which it is), but there's an odd edge lurking in the background that moves it miles away from 'New Age' torpor. This is a lovely album from a composer working at the top of his skills"

Listening to the release anew, one can sense Roach's emerging vision of expressing a rarified, tranquil inner experience through sound and music: a vision both emotional and vivid. The soothing, introspective nature of Quiet Music flows at a time-suspending pace, gently evolving and using space to expand and explore the essence of silence. The space between the notes and the breathing quality bring the listener to a deeper awareness of the present moment.

Darren Bergstein, One Thousand Pulses: "Finally reissued in its entirety, Roach's classic minimalist paean of austere beauty is both profound and timeless with its delicately folding textures seemingly minted from the very skeins of heaven itself."

The Passage is a foray into the realms of pure ambient from Black Tape For A Blue Girl founder/songwriter Sam Rosenthal. The two pieces on the hour-long album submerge the listener in a self-sustaining environment of warm electronics and minimal processings of deep, tender swells and an unresolved, yearning string theme. This is music which gently rotates around its own axis in a time-suspended haze.

The track "The Passage" originated as the blissed-out sixteen-minute closer to 1999's Blacktape CD, As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire.  It would take over a decade for the composition to resurface when Rosenthal began work on the score for Mark A. Michaels & Patricia Johnson's guided-meditation set, Ananda Nidra.  Rosenthal extended the already expansive original to an even more immersive forty-four minutes, serving as the score behind Michael's guidance. "When I muted Mark's track in the studio," Rosenthal remembers, "I discovered the piece had evolved into an intimate, personal and subtle soundscape. I wanted others to hear it on its own."

Without Ananda Nidra's vocal track, "The Passage“ now feels like a gentle echo of the inner silence experienced during meditation. By working with a handful of sonic elements gently evolving over time, Rosenthal changes the emphasis ever so slightly. The vast field of harmonious resonance and granular sound move gradually and languidly, time stretching and evolving, rolling back into itself – very much in the vein of Rosenthal's favorite Discrete Music by Brian Eno. 

On The Passage, everything hinges on the comforting arrival, dissolution and re-appearance of events, on motifs meeting and departing, thematic strands isolated from the current of sounds, drifting and freely floating for minutes on end, before ultimately flowing together again, like tacit tributaries re-entering the stream. 

While "The Passage" revels in a slow motion dance on the far side of the infinite, "Rae," the last ten minutes of the album, adds a new element to the work. Stacking the shimmering harmonics of long-standing Blacktape collaborator and violinist Vicki Richards into a sonorous cathedral dome, "Rae" spirals higher and higher before fading away into a grateful silence. Streaks of strings coalesce into a passionate, romantic tone poem, an inviting, fragile melody. After the preceding forty-five minutes of deepness, these basically subtle timbral and compositional changes stand out as an affirmative response to the ocean of questions raised earlier. "Adding 'Rae' as a conclusion brings the cycle to a close for now," suggests Rosenthal, "It is an emotional release, the passage from this conditional state to the next. A moment of transition."   

For Rosenthal, the album is an expression of his need for calm in a personal hurricane of noise, turbulence and rapid changes: "The Passage has been therapeutic for me," Rosenthal says. "I resurfaced, resurrected, remixed and reworked this piece into the sort of ambient album I love to listen to in my own quiet time. It serves as a call to deeply enter the slow flow of sound as well as an invitation to let the textures inhabit and transform the space around you.  Reprocessing this material as the score for Mark's guided meditation erased the noise of the everyday world while allowing me time to heal. It helped me set free both fears and beautiful possibilities, settling in on a calming sense of release."

"The Passage" returns, dramatically refined and enhanced, accompanied by the new, complementary track "Rae". It brings the narrative of Rosenthal's art to a new point; and in that, it is the beginning of a new chapter in his creative possibilities.

Eztica, brethren follow up to 2009's Atlan, draws a heavy, hungry first breath like that of the first man Quetzalcoatl created from maize. Soriah's virtuoso Tuvan throat-singing, Central Asian stringed instruments and hand percussion is perfectly melded with the neo-ancient airs of Ashkelon Sain's exquisite darkwave guitars, celestial electronics, and hypnotizing poly-rhythms. Eztica has its roots in the ceremonial: ritualism, shamanism, butoh. It is a deeply organic experience, the voice drawing out the primordial spell, touching the earth, reaching for the sky. Captivating percussive sections with driven vocals glide effortlessly across windswept steppes, while otherworldly overtones hang like clouds in a frosted mountain range, all amid deep expanses of slowly shifting, mesmerizing tones. And when the Quetzalcoatl Kundalini of Soriah’s lyrical throat singing fires down the spine, everything goes astral.

The 11 new works featured on Eztica form a neo-tribal, mystically ethereal, paranormally enrapturing musical experience. Blending the textural with the structural, the songs bridge ambient and darkwave stylings, traversing an innerspace replete with sonic splendor, emotional resonance, and instrumental alchemy. Connecting the dots between the human and the shaman amidst the powers and forces of nature, Eztica is a fascinating 68-minute oeuvre for the mind and soul. Beautifully odd, elevatingly dark and utterly lovely.

Both artists have long pedigrees: 40 years of live and recorded musical experience between them. Soriah has existed under that name for over a decade with three previous albums and many tours including performances in clubs and all places mystical, including trees, churches, caves. He has also been recognized through international competition as one of the top 5 throat singers in the world. Ashkelon Sain’s Trance To The Sun project is legendary; his composition skills have been honed razor-sharp on his more recent project, Submarine Fleet. The collaboration is a match made in Omeyocan (the highest Aztec Heaven).

The 2-CD Silent Currents showcases a different side of Erik Wøllo's sound. Here he explores fascinating electronic / ambient landscapes with slow-motion structures, surreal soundscapes and floating currents. Drawn from two separate live radio broadcasts, 104 minutes of music traverse a more ambient, atmospheric and textural side than experienced on his other albums. Recorded in the studio of the famous Star's End radio show in Philadelphia, these performances from 2002 and 2007 are each a disc-long continuous piece with several chapters. With more focus on the deep drones than on melody and rhythm, zones drift and morph, organically flowing into each other. Layers of electronics and processed sound combine with light touches of electric guitar melody floating on top. Quiet, sparse and gentle electronic music with ambient passages mix with occasions of sequencer pulses.

Silent Currents is the 15th release from the Norwegian guitarist, synthesist and composer following his successful 2010 Projekt release, Gateway. In June, Wøllo released The Road Eternal collaboration with Steve Roach succeeding their 2009 joint effort, Stream of Thought; both essential albums in the electronic genre introduced a new audience to Wøllo's personal signature of introspective atmospherics.

Star’s End is one of the longest-running radio programs of ambient music in the world. Since 1976, this show has provided the Philadelphia broadcast area with weekly midnight musical adventures. Erik says, “I have been kindly invited to perform at Star's End multiple times. To perform 'on the air' late at night in the radio studio contributed to these unique and inspired performances. In this setting, it felt very natural to do some downtempo and quiet, floating ambient music. Thus, this release is more abstract and chilled out than I usually present on my studio albums. Some elements of the music was improvised; I brought various sound excerpts, loops and atmospheres, and performed and composed these into long continuous zones, all done in real time."

Chuck Van Zyl, host of Star's End adds, "Over the years Star's End has hosted many live to air concerts, usually with artists fresh from The Gatherings Concert Series stage. The act of playing a second, more intimate concert after a public event provides a sense of summation to a powerful experience. But the unique radio venue also offers musicians a space for discovery, as they turn from focused music for The Gatherings community to atmospheres for an audience each in their own dream space. Erik Wøllo enthusiastically embraces this idea using his on-air concerts to explore moods and zones only found in the late hour and unconventional situation. There is an interesting energy arcing through Silent Currents: Erik descends into himself, realizing music completely in the moment. The resulting new works are wonderful expressions of ambience, texture and this artist's potent sense of drama as Wøllo creates space, then fills it with ever-evolving sound."

With his focus on the deep drones and interwoven ambient tributaries, Wøllo creates a vivid soundtrack for the senses, taking the listener to the outer reaches of the imagination. Impressionistic electronic / ambient music at its best! Relax and float on the Silent Currents.

For the first time ever, the meditative, ambient minimalism of the Quiet Music series is available in its entirety in a 3-CD digi-pak release. Originally released in the 1986 on cassette and later in a truncated 2-CD edition, Quiet Music (The Original 3-Hour Collection) presents this landmark album as Roach envisioned it.

Quiet Music is a collection of pieces created between 1983 and 1986 in respect for silence. The gentle electronics of Roach's synthesizers mix with flute, electric piano and sounds of nature flowing like breath, enveloping the listener in a sustained, delicate, translucent atmosphere.

Much of this music began as a series of early-'80s recordings commissioned by healing-arts programs and later used for everything from personal meditation to birthing music. Today these pieces still stand as a cornerstone in body-work, yoga, and healing therapies.

The enduring nature of this music is even more significent when placed in the context of the '80s climate from which it originated. "In looking at the arc of my music, nearly 30 years after creating Quiet Music," Roach reflects, “I still feel an unbroken connection to this same inner breath and pulse I was discovering within myself and my creative life at that time. Even with everything that was going on in the early '80s -- musically, culturally, politically - this music came to exist in its own dimension, outside of that time, separate from the day-to-day climate in which I was surrounded. I was yearning to express a timeless and universal soul-tone, a safe haven within the music. I had tapped into a reliable way to access this quiet repose at several favorite getaways in nature which was the main influence of this music."

Listening to the release anew, one can sense Roach's emerging vision of expressing a rarified, tranquil inner experience through sound and music: a vision both emotional and vivid. The soothing, introspective nature of Quiet Music flows at a time-suspending pace, gently evolving and using space to expand and explore the essence of silence. The space between the notes and the breathing quality bring the listener to a deeper awareness of the present moment.

For the first time ever, the meditative, ambient minimalism of the Quiet Music series is available in its entirety in a 3-CD digi-pak release. Originally released in the 1986 on cassette and later in a truncated 2-CD edition, Quiet Music (The Original 3-Hour Collection) presents this landmark album as Roach envisioned it.

Quiet Music is a collection of pieces created between 1983 and 1986 in respect for silence. The gentle electronics of Roach's synthesizers mix with flute, electric piano and sounds of nature flowing like breath, enveloping the listener in a sustained, delicate, translucent atmosphere.

Much of this music began as a series of early-'80s recordings commissioned by healing-arts programs and later used for everything from personal meditation to birthing music. Today these pieces still stand as a cornerstone in body-work, yoga, and healing therapies.

The enduring nature of this music is even more significent when placed in the context of the '80s climate from which it originated. "In looking at the arc of my music, nearly 30 years after creating Quiet Music," Roach reflects, “I still feel an unbroken connection to this same inner breath and pulse I was discovering within myself and my creative life at that time. Even with everything that was going on in the early '80s -- musically, culturally, politically - this music came to exist in its own dimension, outside of that time, separate from the day-to-day climate in which I was surrounded. I was yearning to express a timeless and universal soul-tone, a safe haven within the music. I had tapped into a reliable way to access this quiet repose at several favorite getaways in nature which was the main influence of this music."

Listening to the release anew, one can sense Roach's emerging vision of expressing a rarified, tranquil inner experience through sound and music: a vision both emotional and vivid. The soothing, introspective nature of Quiet Music flows at a time-suspending pace, gently evolving and using space to expand and explore the essence of silence. The space between the notes and the breathing quality bring the listener to a deeper awareness of the present moment.

For the first time ever, the meditative, ambient minimalism of the Quiet Music series is available in its entirety in a 3-CD digi-pak release. Originally released in the 1986 on cassette and later in a truncated 2-CD edition, Quiet Music (The Original 3-Hour Collection) presents this landmark album as Roach envisioned it.

Quiet Music is a collection of pieces created between 1983 and 1986 in respect for silence. The gentle electronics of Roach's synthesizers mix with flute, electric piano and sounds of nature flowing like breath, enveloping the listener in a sustained, delicate, translucent atmosphere.

Much of this music began as a series of early-'80s recordings commissioned by healing-arts programs and later used for everything from personal meditation to birthing music. Today these pieces still stand as a cornerstone in body-work, yoga, and healing therapies.

The enduring nature of this music is even more significent when placed in the context of the '80s climate from which it originated. "In looking at the arc of my music, nearly 30 years after creating Quiet Music," Roach reflects, “I still feel an unbroken connection to this same inner breath and pulse I was discovering within myself and my creative life at that time. Even with everything that was going on in the early '80s -- musically, culturally, politically - this music came to exist in its own dimension, outside of that time, separate from the day-to-day climate in which I was surrounded. I was yearning to express a timeless and universal soul-tone, a safe haven within the music. I had tapped into a reliable way to access this quiet repose at several favorite getaways in nature which was the main influence of this music."

Listening to the release anew, one can sense Roach's emerging vision of expressing a rarified, tranquil inner experience through sound and music: a vision both emotional and vivid. The soothing, introspective nature of Quiet Music flows at a time-suspending pace, gently evolving and using space to expand and explore the essence of silence. The space between the notes and the breathing quality bring the listener to a deeper awareness of the present moment.

Ananda Nidra : Blissful Sleep was created by renowned Tantra teachers and authors Mark A. Michaels (Swami Umeshanand Saraswati) and Patricia Johnson (Devi Veenanand). It is inspired by a traditional Tantric practice known as Yoga Nidra. These two innovative, spoken-word meditations rely on pleasurable images and sensations to induce feelings of relaxation and refreshment coupled with a profound sense of satisfaction. Presented for the first time on compact disc, the 44 minute meditations are read by Michaels (accompanied by a minimalist ambient track from darkwave legends Black Tape For A Blue Girl) and Johnson (accompanied by a floating soundscape from prominent electronic-ambient pioneer Steve Roach). Each CD in this 2-CD set contains one meditation, followed by an additional 16 minutes of music for continued reflection and intregration of the experience. Practicing Ananda Nidra™ involves following the speaker's voice while lying in a comfortable position. If the mind wanders or the listener drifts off to sleep momentarily, the attention is brought back to the instructions. Ananda Nidra begins with a rotation of consciousness through the body. Moving the awareness in this way produces a deep meditative state. Repeating the instructions mentally will take one even deeper. After the rotation is complete, the listener is taken through a series of sense memories and is then guided to experience a direct connection with internal sources of bliss and the beauty of existence.

It is said that 45 minutes of this guided meditation is equivalent to more than three hours of sleep. After practicing Ananda Nidra, the listener will emerge with renewed calm, focused awareness, and a sense of increased energy. Unlike other guided meditations, Ananda Nidra is specifically intended to awaken delightful and erotic sensations and to give the listener a greater capacity to experience joy in everyday life.

In Ananda Nidra, the listener is invited to set an intention at the beginning of the meditation and then to visualize it. The intention should be framed in positive terms: for example, to reinforce a desired behavior, to deepen one's connection with a partner, to develop even more focus, or to maximize self-confidence. This is a powerful tool for personal growth and transformation because the suggestible state that Ananda Nidra produces will implant the intention deep within the unconscious. According to the Vijnanabhairava Tantra, a classic seventh- or eighth-century Tantric text, the state that lies on the border between sleep and wakefulness is a profoundly mystical one. Ananda Nidra will guide one into this blissful state, while focusing the mind on pleasure. Just lie back and let Ananda Nidra awaken the joy that dwells within.

From CMJ Magazine, December, 1988: The Arms of Someone New formed in 1983, the brainchild of Steve Jones (student at the time and now a professor and also a member of Area) and Mel Eberle (formerly of the First Things) when the Champaign, IL pair recorded a demo and released a cassette. A few tapes and two albums later, AOSN has released Promise, a considerable progression and a fine production. Following a short Beatle-esque intro to the LP, "No City Fun" is dark and pensive, much like the feeling of the Cure's Faith LP. Promise is hardly a funereal procession, though, as "Hollywood" hoists the mood with its very uplifting sound, overlaying voices, a Joy Division-gone-New-Order bassline, drum tracks and driving guitar resonance. "Here Comes Everything" is an incredibly danceable blend of guitar-drenched textures, and "Every Seventh Wave" moves like a pressure wave. Promise also has a Felt-ish feel at times (songs like "Stars End"), but where Felt albums are sometimes disappointingly unchanging, AOSN challenges conformity by mixing styles, but without sacrificing unity. By mingling believably lacy and sumptuous moments with ghostly textures, Promise is as simple and as complex as a promise can be. Promise.

Following their collaboration Stream of Thoughts (Projekt, 2009) Roach and Wøllo reunite to travel The Road Eternal: an electronic/ambient path filled with passion and beauty. Six engaging and expansive rhythmic sequencer-based tracks intersperse with ambient zones and soaring electric guitar textures highlighting sparse, arching thematic lines.

Wherein their first collaboration blended a number of shorter passages into a spellbinding whole, The Road Eternal is six longer compositions that build upon a basis of complex, inventive and hypnotic sequencer patterns. Intricate and ever-changing rhythmic cycles merge with melodic phrases creating a compelling groundwork that propels the music forwards. With inspiration drawn in part from classic trance-inducing electronic music with early German roots, the project takes on an interwoven structure draped with harmonic and melodic passages. The route through the music offers different perspectives to hear or "see" on every listen.

This is the sound of big skies, open roads and soaring thoughts pulling one towards the next destination; reflected in the music is the counterplay of long and meditative rythmic zones and constellation-like melodic elements filled with space. The tracks transpose two different worlds: Steve's southwestern desert habitat and Erik's home base in Norway.  The sum of these two environments becomes a hybrid landscape of new discovery. "We are both passionate about the observation of nature and the poetic character of natural surroundings," Erik says, "The ways in which we relate to this, as well as the awareness of the ongoing passage of time. These ideas have been a driving force behind our whole artistic careers, and it is strongly reflected in this collaboration."

"In our music," Steve reflects, "a central pulse and steady momentum is present. The sensation is a consistent feeling of travel. Whether you're driving, flying, riding a train or some other form of transportation, the sound and vibration enters your body and becomes part of the meditation of the travel experience. Listening to these tracks while traveling allows the music to merge with the experience arriving at an integrated place where thoughts and imagination are unified as a soundtrack for one's own road movie. The metaphor of 'the road eternal in the creative process' is the other element of the album title: the road the artist travels with the allure of discovering what is next around the corner."

The project began in early 2010 and shifted into high gear when Erik traveled to Tucson that fall to perform at the SoundQuest Fest. After the concert, the two artists holed-up in The Timeroom Studio for a few days channeling the energy from the fest to work non-stop towards The Road Eternal's completion.  Roach states, "This is the music I have wanted to create with Erik since I first heard his classic Traces release way back in the 80's."

With Steve on analog sequencing, electronic percussion and most of the zones and atmospheres, Erik focuses on his processed, textural, and melodic elements while performing on various guitars and guitar synthesizers. The Road Eternal strikes a perfect balance of the artists' two distinct styles and common ground.

The sound is vibrant, emotional, full of shimmering light and saturated with optimism. With each artist having devoted over 30 years to their art, this album flows with the understanding and skill that comes from this experience, bringing their specialties together in the true spirit of collaboration.

Symphonic, neoclassical, heavenly voices with strong influences from classical and spiritual music -- artists and composers such as early-period Dead Can Dance, Arvo Part, Giacinto Scelsi, Stoa and Arcana -- Atrium Animae is a hermetic project distinguished by dusky atmospheres and a mesmeric journey into a world of submission and desperation. In the full-length concept album Dies Irae, the recurring theme within the seven tracks is the relationship between Man and God as a symbolic voyage in a silent wasteland made of treachery, defeat and spiritual hunger. A world where the locked embrace of loss and despair are represented through a reinterpretation of passages taken from religious and pagan texts.

The analysis of the human condition and its relationship with God is made on Dies Irae through a separation into two main parts.

The first is a representation of the human being with its contradictions, its sense of misery.

Torment, a furious rage against inequity and wrong acts, and the demand of vengeance are expressed in the “Psalmus 57” (“Deus conteret dentes eorum in ore”, God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouth, “Laetabitur iustus cum viderit vindictam manus suas lavabit in sanguine peccatoris”, the Just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge, he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner). The possibility of reconciliation between Man and God through the Sacrifice, the human redemption and the remission of sins, is symbolized in “Rex Gloriae”. A sense of misery and betrayal pervades the “Psalmus 87”, (“Elongasti a me amicum et proximum, et notos meos a miseria”, Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me, and my acquaintance, because of misery). A profound silence is the only reply in “Lacrimosa Dies”.

The first part is the prelude to the second, the representation of the “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath). “Signum Iudicii” is the visionary description of the Apocalypse in the prophecy of the Erythraean Sibyl, with words taken from “De Civitate Dei” by St. Augustini. The sense of loss and human despair are expressed in the last two songs, from texts taken from the Apocalypse of St. John (Latin Vulgate version of St. Jerome), with the representation of the opening of the last seal in the dramatic “Sigillum Septimum” (The Seventh Seal) and the visionary description of the end of the world in “Angelum Abyssi” (The Angel of the Abyss).

Seven dramatic tracks - 44 minutes of total playing time - of a desolate journey into an apocalyptic scenario with no hope of redemption.

Featuring: Byron Metcalf - percussion, frame drum; Dashmesh Khalsa - didgeridoo; Brian Parnham - didgeridoo

Steve’s pinnacle performance from 2010's SoundQuest Fest proved to be a real moment in time, and fortunately it was documented with a high resolution recording that places the listener front and center. Presented as a chronicle of the first 74 minutes of the concert as it unfolded, three distinct realms are seamlessly mapped out on this CD. The opening starts with a 25-minute all electronic piece of perpetual forward motion. From here we experience an amazing interplay between didgeridoo players Dashmesh Khalsa, Brian Parnham, percussionist Byron Metcalf and Steve performing real-time looping, processing and mixing along with soundworlds, ocarina and voice. This passage is an all-out expression of shamanic ecstasy that boils over into an engulfing tribal trance state. The last portion of the set settles into an ultra drifting electro-organic zone that encapsulates many of Steve’s recent innovations and presents them in the dynamic light of the live setting.