Search - Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana :: Somewhere Else

	Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana Somewhere Else Genres: International Music, New Age, Pop, Rock Track Listings (1) - Disc #1 Somewhere Else It's not often you get duets in pure ambience, but synthesist Steve Roach has been working at it for a decade with Belgian synthesist Vidna Obmana (a.k.a. Dirk Serries). In 1999, they released a limited-edition, three-CD s... more » « less
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CD Details

All Artists: Steve Roach, Vidna Obmana
Title: Somewhere Else
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Label: Projekt Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2005
Re-Release Date: 10/18/2005
Genres: International Music, New Age, Pop, Rock
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 617026017723

Synopsis

Amazon.com

It's not often you get duets in pure ambience, but synthesist Steve Roach has been working at it for a decade with Belgian synthesist Vidna Obmana (a.k.a. Dirk Serries). In 1999, they released a limited-edition, three-CD set of deep ambience called Ascension of Shadows. Now that box set is being broken up into its component parts and released as single discs. The first, Somewhere Else, drops you into the deep end with a single 72-minute composition. It's like riding a ghost ship where sounds are submerged, fittings and rigging rustle and bang, and pipe-organ chords hang distended and unmoored. It's abstract, but never dissonant or discordant. Cast in another time or a different environment, Somewhere Else would be considered avant-garde and plopped down next to Gyorgy Ligeti's "Atmospheres" or Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Telemusik." As with a lot of Roach's music. there are no melodies or rhythms to grab onto. Instead, you just drift into the sound world, exulting when an apparent crescendo emerges 51 minutes in. --John Diliberto

CD Reviews

The Masterpiece of the Roach/Obmana collaborations-The Sound

dronecaster | Baton Rouge, LA USA | 10/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Back in 1998, Steve Roach and Vidna Obmana teamed up to create a limited edition, three-disc set called "Ascension of Shadows", with each disc containing one composition well over an hour in length. Clearly the most successful of the three was the first in the series, a 72-minute composition called "Somewhere Else". For the past several years, "Ascension" has been out of print due to its initial limited edition status. But now, Projekt Records has wisely decided to reissue each of these discs, removing them from obscurity.

Sonically, "Somewhere Else" could be best described as a update on the central idea behind Brian Eno's "Thursday Afternoon", not in terms of its length, but more so in its general feel. However, unlike that pioneering work of "wall-of-sound" ambience, Roach and Obmana crafted a much eerier soundscape, evoking ancient, subconscious memories no different from the ones drawn up from "Looking for Safety" from Roach's "Dreamtime Return". Even more so than the duo's brilliant "Well of Souls", or even their most recent plunge into the realm of dark sonic bliss, "Spirit Dome", "Somewhere Else" achieves the full promise of the Roach/Obmana mindmeld, and should be considered quite simply one of the greatest ambient compositions ever...pure melliflousness with substance, the soundtrack to paradise."

Simple, Yet Effective

Mike Smith | 10/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I did not know much about this release before purchasing it. It was a pleasant surprise. It is not complex by any stretch of the imagination, but there is enough variety to latch onto which keeps it from being too simple. Something about it is hypnotic. This is a good representation of what ambient music is, and it is well made. If your goal is to relax or meditate and you don't mind simplicity, look no further, "Somewhere Else" will work for you."

Hauntingly Beautiful...

Joe Mugsy | 09/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of THE best ambient works I've heard. Just behind Steve's "Slow Heat" (Which is available through his website,[[...]). It just creates a *mood* that seems to last forever. Put this on while your driving your car thru the countryside on an autumn day......& you'll know what I mean. Peaceful....relaxing...but also thought provoking!"