Steve Roach -- The Magnificent Void

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Released
1996

Reviewed by
Kim Alexander

Label

Visit
Hearts of Space

Contact
Fathom Records
P.O. Box 31321
San Francisco, CA
94131

Last Edit/Update
20 February, 1998

Steve Roach

The Magnificent Void

Track Listing

1. Between the Gray and the Purple (7.42)
2. Void Memory One (2.53)
3. Infinite Shore (7.47)
4. Cloud of Unknowing (10.38)
5. Void Memory Two (3.40)
6. Void Memory Three (3.41)
7. The Magnificent Void (13.13)
8. Altus (20.01)

One of the most enigmatic of all transpersonal phenomena is the experience of the Void, the encounter with primordial Emptiness, Nothingness, and Silence. This extraordinary spiritual experience is of a highly paradoxical nature. The Void exists beyond form of any kind. While being a source of everything it cannot itself be derived from anything else. It is beyond space and time. While we can perceive nothing concrete in the Void, there is also the profound sense that nothing is missing. This absolute emptiness is simultaneously pregnant with all of existence since it contains everything in a potential form.

-- Stanislav Grof: The Holotropic Mind
[Taken from the cd cover: The Magnificent Void]

         Overall, the *feel* to this outstanding work of art by Steve Roach is one of eerie, ambient, dark, ethereal soundscape. Slow swirling drones of electronics and deep vibrating pulses of sound drift along on harmonic backdrops. This release brings out the best in deep inner non-spacial resonance! If sound does in fact take up space, this experimental ambiance packs the room.
          While listening to this CD, I envision the brilliance of outer space, the colors that encircle planets and comets, and what it would be like to be weightless. Excellent music to relax with -- but don't read a book, sit back, close your eyes, and float away into the Void. It reminds me a bit of some of the music in 2001 and 2010 Space Odyssey, NOT the *classical* but the floating in space ambient type.
          This is one of the most beautiful CDs created by Steve Roach I have heard, and I have by no means heard them all...[see this month's reviews with Steve Roach and friends]. The music pretty much speaks for itself...so it's best if you buy it and listen to it yourself, because my words just don't do it justice.

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