Steve Roach - Structures From Silence (Album Review)

 

Steve Roach - Structures From Silence

(1984)

My copy: 1984 press by Fortuna Records.

An American disciple of Tangerine Dream and other forerunning names in experimental electronic music, Steve Roach became obsessed with producing synthesizer music in the early 80s. Classified at the time as “new age” music, Roach tackled long, atmospheric meditations with a sound that would truly come into its own with his 1984 record Structures From Silence. With his third album, Roach builds an impeccable landscape of colorful melodies and mysterious echoes. 

Fragments of shimmering staccato synth melodies slowly fade into focus, like golden beams of light poking through a mesh of leaves. “Reflections In Suspension” is the calmest track, engulfing listeners in a childlike mix of serenity and wonder with its joyful twinkling melodies. The bass is warm but thick, it cautiously builds vague tension so as to not reveal its hand too early. As the drones swell, the movement releases all anticipation with a grand progression as the bass elevates all other sounds. The production is stellar, and the tones chosen evoke a blissful sense of adventure, like a child daydreaming about exploring space. There is just the right level of drama and movement, and every new sound is friendly and perfectly balanced. The track eventually settles down, with sustained chords taking longer and longer to resolve. It is as though the synths themselves are yawning after a long day, and gentling coasting into silence. 

“Quiet Friend” is distinctly mysterious, beginning with a heavier focus on subtlety. The synth voices reverberate out into silence as a slowly oscillating bass tone awakens. The bass exudes some pressure, as if representing the mild fear one might feel when exploring an unknown location. Roach’s work assures us his musical frontiers are free of threats as a sweet melody slowly takes the spotlight from the horizon. New otherworldly sounds shift in pitch and interlock with the softer synths, as the track is bolstered into a new feeling of triumph. 

The album concludes with the title track; a nearly 30 minute soundscape of cerebral ambient loops. This final odyssey is cooler and more refined, as it further explores the relationship between sound and silence. If the album itself represented a human life span, track one would be childhood, two would be adolescence and three would be adulthood and maturity. 

It is sometimes difficult to fully convince people that ambient music is worth consuming. There are plenty of slow, introspective and consequently boring synth records out in the world, but it should not be taken lightly when I state that Structures From Silence is one of the most impressive ambient albums I’ve ever heard. It is simultaneously gripping and meditative; imaginative and simple; bright and pale. For those of us who find themselves constantly lost in daydreams, Structures From Silence is the ultimate accompaniment.