Their best collaboration since "Well of Souls"
dronecaster | Baton Rouge, LA USA | 04/04/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I must admit that I was beginning to lose a little faith in the Roach/Obmana mindmeld. While interesting in and of itself, their previous work, "Innerzone", struck me as strangely unengaging and uninspiring. That fear however has been put to rest with the release of "Spirit Dome", an improvisational performance that is clearly their finest collaborative effort in almost a decade.
Perhaps a quantum leap beyond "Cavern of Sirens" (Projekt, '97) and "Innerzone" (Projekt, '02) combined, "Dome" is a 74-minute exercise in darkly ethereal guitar loops (not too dissimilar from Roach's exceptional "Darkest Before Dawn" [Timeroom, '02]), subtle, almost subsonic and vaguely tribal beat patterns, and glitch-like electronic bleeps that dance like fireflys trying to find their way through the night. Parts of "Dome" bear a slight resemblance to the work of the electroacoustic duo Voice of Eye, whose "Transmigration" (released in '95) is one of the greatest recordings of ambient electronica ever as well as a stunning landmark of late 20th century music.
And of course, experienced listeners will also hear references to previous Roach recordings--the percussive loop on track seven resembles his work with Jeffrey Fayman and Robert Fripp from "Trance Spirits" and the overall interplay of textures without regard to conventional melody or harmony brings to mind "Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces." This is by far the most subtle performance by both musicians in tandem, with Obmana's wispy overtone flute notes combining with Roach's almost non-existent guitar chords; the music ultimately resides at the borders of consciousness like a dream, trancelike in the extreme. Overall, "Spirit Dome" is yet another gripping sound portrait worth being listened to by anyone with an either an interest in the work of these two esteemed composers or ambient electronica in general."
A MASTERPIECE OF DARK AMBIENCE
Unlucky Frank | Lalaland, CA United States | 01/18/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I prefer Roach when he goes deep into ambient structures of primordial form. The darker the better. And SPIRIT DOME is a slow turbid meditative swell of pitch black. This is one of my favorite Roach experiments since his remarkable EARLY MAN sessions. As an artist I enjoy ambient soundscapes for creative visualization and chemically altered states of consciousness. The first time I put this on I turned the lights down low, I turned the volume up, and I closed my eyes. The images that poured out of my subconscious were both beautiful and terrifying. It was next to impossible to stop the slow morphing rush of landscapes and forms without opening my eyes. Mind blowing to say the least. There is no other artist that I know of that is capable of inducing these states of mind without the use of chemicals. It's like a peyote ceremony without the peyote. This is why I am obsessed with Roach's music. (It's also quite euphoric when luminous fungi are added to the mix.)
Buddhism says, form is emptiness, emptiness is form. The only words I can summon to describe this sound: the form of emptiness is materalizing and collapsing back on itself. The primordial soup in the act of becoming. But words are meaningless without experience. You must experience this recording. IT'S INCREDIBLE. Enjoy."
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1
