Steve Roach y Erik Wollo, solo de escuchar estos nombres a uno ya se le ilumina la mente soñando con lo que nos podemos encontrar en este trabajo, y es que cuando dos magos se juntan, los sueños se hacen realidad.

Projekt acaba de publicar "The Road Eternal", el nuevo trabajo de estos dos magos de la musica llamados Steve Roach y Erik Wollo.

Tras su anterior colaboración "Stream of Thoughts", estos dos magníficos compositores se vuelven a reunir para crear este "The Road Eternal", seis composiciones en las que las secuencias, los ritmos y los ambientes que solo estos dos genios saben crear, vuelven a estar presentes.

El disco comienza con una larga suite de más de veinte minutos donde se comienza a vislumbrar lo que estos dos hombres juntos son capaces de hacer, precisamente, esa suite es la que le da el título a este trabajo. En los siguientes temas, las secuencias y ambientes atmósfericos de Roach y las guitarras sintetizadas de Erik siguen haciendo acto de presencia en un trabajo que no nos da descanso, un verdadero placer auditivo para disfrutar de la magia de la música.

La verdad, que cuando se encuentra un trabajo como este, sobran las palabras, solamente necesitamos cerrar los ojos y dejar volar nuestra mente ante la música que se apodera de nosotros y es que la música de estos dos magos, como el propio título del disco nos dice, es una "carretera eterna" donde poder disfrutar de la música sinfin, porque escuchar a estos dos genios, es un disfrute que nunca debe de parar.

Steve Roach's 2011 collaboration with Erik Wøllo is in keeping with his work in general, unsurprisingly so -- it's identifiably Roach almost from the start, harking back to some of his earliest days with the initial slow, steady swells and blissful tones of the title track, which opens the six-track disc and takes up nearly a third of its running time. As the song moves into a more active phase, though, the sense of Roach's continuity between the original explorations of 1970s synth pioneers and a wide new group of performers working in the field becomes clearer. Where many of those performers often push ominous undertones to the full nearly at all times, Roach is as content to let a sweeter side emerge, a recapturing of a certain utopian spirit that is too often lost or misunderstood. The remainder of the disc moves further into this sense of vast space and elegant contemplation and motion within it. It's not something unfamiliar with Roach at all, but given the distinctly doomier touches many of his releases around this time have shown, his efforts here with Wøllo seem almost to be a clear difference in intention at work. Thus, if "Depart at Sunrise" has something of the same lost and forlorn feeling as the start of Vangelis' score to Blade Runner, there's a calmer feeling as well -- no sudden cracks of sound, instead favoring the same gentle pacing and slightly murky quirk. The steady half-lope/half-squelch of rhythm on "Travel by Moonlight" helps ground the disc in its own way, a sense of progression forward while the sky opens overhead, something the distant soft tones emphasize further. Meanwhile, the distant guitar notes of "Night Strands" conclude the album on a lovely note, another fine demonstration of the duo's abilities. -Ned Raggett

Year 2011: Ten great ambient and downtempo albums

Synthesist Roach meets guitarist Wollo and The Road Eternal is the delightful result. The album is full of gentle movement and colour and is something of a showcase for the subtle rhythmic complexity possible in sequencer-based music, its percussion patterns being more intricate and intriguing then typical old-school Berlin ambient trance despite the clear lineage. The widescreen harmonies are deep, warm and rich; Wollo's synthesised guitar phrasing on tracks like "The Next Place" and "Travel By Moonlight" is especially tender and haunting. Needless to say, it's a good album for long trips in the car.

There are few music styles that are really hard to talk about due to the hidden strings touched in each soul which desires to open its doors towards new experiences. One of the magicians to create an endless joy during many and many years is an American composer Steve Roach . Being one of the pioneers of ambient music, he brought us dozens of albums in his inexhaustible career. More than that, his will to collaborate with other big names of the music world shows a lot of fresh delights in his portfolio. One of his good friends and brothers-in-arms, Erik Wollo, have actively works together with Steve during last few years and this cooperation gives birth to two beautiful acts . One of them was dropped by my flat not long ago, owing to Sam Rosenthal and his crew from Projekt Records.

The name of the album that takes me on a journey this time is 'The Road Eternal', built up with six long tracks and filled with hypnotic and complex patterns. This time it is not the ambience that navigates the electronic structures, but the total fusion between the rhythm and background atmosphere. The energetic pieces, sound textures of Steve and gentle touches of Erik's guitar expand into such a depth that penetrate even my inner world, tempered in boiling water and ardent fire of noise and power electronics. As soon as the album was created around a conceptual idea of big spaces during long travels, it absolutely captures my imagination and drives it towards the final destination hidden behind horizon. Even after listening to many hours of Steve's music, I stay in deep meditative mood during all of the CD's playtime without any shadow of boredom. This is because the melody is constantly evolving, full of pulses, percussion and changes of tempo. Restless energy and endless creativity break the boundaries of space and time continuum. Both artists complement each other, creating a state of art that definitely puts a huge and fat milestone in the history of ambient music. After playing this album for at least twenty times, I feel the great honor to witness this kind of experience. -Andrew

[Joint review for The Road Eternal and Live at SoundQuest Fest]

I’m pairing these reviews together because they more or less stem from the same creative space. Erik Wøllo came to Tucson, Arizona, as part of Steve Roach’s SoundQuest Fest 2011. He played his superb piece, The Gateway, live during the show. Afterward, Wøllo and Roach seized upon the creative momentum that came out of the concert and spent the next few days at Roach’s Timeroom studio finishing up work they had started earlier in the year, which would become The Road Eternal.

It’s not easy for me to be objective about Live at SoundQuest Fest because I was there, and it was something of a defining moment for me as an ambient music fan. I’ve been into Roach’s music since the 80s and am particularly appreciative of his tribal work. I was out in the desert for the first time. And I was among a gathering of my electro-tribe, meeting many of the people whose music I’ve come to appreciate over the years. So listening to this slice of Roach’s day-closing set carries a lot of connotations for me.

The work here lands squarely in future-primitive space, intertwining rapid-fire analog/sequencer foundations and long, drifting pads with deep, shamanic excursions. It kicks off with the nearly 30-minute “Momentum of Desire,” beginning with Roach working his synths solo, shifting from beatless washes to pulsing energy. The mood transforms as Byron Metcalf enters to bring a bit of tribal juju with shakers, rattles and drums at the start of “Medicine of the Moment,” and we leave the present behind. This is the start of a 25-minute long deep shamanic groove that runs through the fiery “Thunderwalkers.” As Roach and Metcalf prepare the space, didgeridoo players Dashmesh Khalsa and Brian Parnham enter, each taking up a six-foot stick, to trade otherworldly tones and pour them into the proceedings. The feeling takes on a sacred air as the quartet craft a largely improvised, live-looped atmosphere that’s all about instinct and existing in the energy of the moment. Musical intent is left behind in lieu of crafting a response-driven sound-image. It wraps around you. Roach’s ocarina slithers through; the didgeridoos bark, snarl and cajole; shadowy drones lay over everything, As the set moves into “Thunderwalkers,” Metcalf’s rhythms crack the darkness and energize the space with a living pulse. Power absolutely courses through every moment of this track. I love the chant sounds around the 7 minute mark–it’s Roach leaning into the mic with a “yyyah,” the single voice processed into a tribal call. Khalsa leads the way through the short, transformational track “Morphic” with more growling and yelping didge, the sounds intensified and thickened by Roach at the soundboard. Then it’s left to Roach to cool down the moment and bring it back toward the now with the pure synth work of “Off Planet Passage.” Echoes of Metcalf’s skins anchor the sound as it winds toward a quiet close.

Aside from capturing the energy of this superb grouping, Live at SoundQuest Fest also benefits from the way it carries reminders and hints of work past and future. The tribal sections call up thoughts of Dream Tracker, The Desert Inbetween and Serpent’s Lair–while also hinting at that disc’s upcoming follow-up; the analog work pulls from the energetic sources that inform and infuse so much of Roach’s recent solo work, including Immersion 5, which pulls from “Off Planet Passage.” An excellent record of a fantastic event.

If SoundQuest pulls the listener down into primal-memory introspection, The Road Eternal lifts them into a more optimistic and upbeat state of mind. The energy of rhythmic sequencers kicks in right away, a liquid shimmer that gleams across most of the tracks. Wøllo’s guitar hums and sings its way through the mix in an easy lilt that plays neatly off the geometries of the sequencer runs. (It’s at its finest in the cool coursings of “The Next Place” or softly sighing as the voice in “Night Strands.”) This is a work about velocity and movement, about going forward. Unlike the duo’s previous effort, Stream of Thought, which existed a moment at a time, The Road Eternal sets its focus squarely on the horizon and heads for it. But it’s not all pedal-to-the-metal. After revving the engine with the title track, “Depart At Sunrise” coasts into view, a panoramic vista opening slowly in front of you. The sequencers get dialed back a touch to make space for long pads and crunchy analog synth effects. “First Twilight” appropriately slows to a gentle ambient drift, Roach and Wøllo tinting their shared sky with lush aural colors fading into night. “Travel by Moonlight” eases the tempo back up, underscored by a rich, repeating bass pulse. Wøllo’s guitar soars as counterpoint.

Roach notes on his site: “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.” I’ll attest to that. The Road Eternal has softened many a commute and provided the incidental music for thought-filled evening drives home. Listen, and see where the music takes you.

Con temas compuestos, mezclados y producidos íntegramente por Steve Roach y Erik Wollo, estos alquimistas sonoros acaban de presentarnos en este año 2011 un viaje sensorial por esa perspectiva infinita tan particular y característica en los adoradores del individualismo. Seis temas para ser disfrutados a través de la privacidad de un reproductor de música, o en la soledad del hogar, como banda sonora de una visión contemplativa de la vida previa a la acción. Sin duda alguna, muchos lectores de Lux Atenea Webzine encontrarán en este maravilloso y cautivador álbum, ese estilo musical ecléctico que tanto estaban esperando escuchar y que tan necesaria se presenta ante nuestras almas frente al creciente caos social y moral en el que estamos viviendo. “The Road Eternal”, como metáfora de nuestra existencia en busca de la plenitud, se ha convertido en uno de los álbumes que más me ha sorprendido por su autenticidad y por ese carácter innovador que, irradiado por el talento de estos dos maestros de la composición, es capaz de llevarte en un instante a la vanguardia creativa más deslumbrante dentro de la escena musical independiente actual. Con un cautivador diseño gráfico a cargo de este espíritu renacentista llamado Sam Rosenthal, y en el que se han utilizado fotografías realizadas por los propios músicos para este fenomenal trabajo, sin duda alguna, el prestigioso sello discográfico PROJEKT RECORDS ha vuelto a situar un poco más alto aun su propio nivel de calidad con la publicación de este eminente álbum.

Iniciamos esta interesante audición adentrándonos en la expansiva atmósfera sonora del tema “The Road Eternal” a través de un reflexivo viaje por la inmensidad existencial de lo imperecedero, de lo inmortal, de lo eterno,… en definitiva, introduciéndonos en el interior de la más pura esencia divina. Tras más de veinte minutos de constante exploración emocional a través de una continua evolución en su dinamismo melódico, la composición “Depart At Sunrise” se abrirá dentro de nuestra mente para llevarnos a la contemplación de la belleza sonora más sublime hasta llevar a nuestro espíritu a su equilibrio más universal y satisfactorio. Unas texturas sonoras puramente vanguardistas que tendrán su continuidad conceptual en el tema “The Next Place” a través de una nueva intensidad musical mucho más vibrante y nebulosa que nos llevará directamente a las puertas de “First Twilight”, y sus sublimes trasfondos evanescentes. A continuación, “Travel By Moonlight” nos permitirá disfrutar de unos momentos únicos gracias a esta ornamentación sonora a través de una detallada estructura musical de incomparable belleza artística. Una estructura decorada con múltiples e intensos detalles sonoros que, en el tema que pone cierre a este excelso álbum, “Night Strands”, les dejará fascinados e irremediablemente concentrados en el placentero disfrute de esta delicatesen musical. “The Eternal Road”, cuando la música se transforma en el lenguaje perfecto para estimular nuestro espíritu y nuestra alma. ¡¡¡Disfrútenlo!!! -Lux_Atman

“The Road Eternal” offers up an enjoyable and rewarding mixture of: expansive ambience, soaring atmospheric guitar textures, lite-techno ambient beat scapes, and genreal melodic & atmospheric ambient electronics.

The album brings together highly respected US ambient artist Steve Roach with Norwegian mood maker & ambient guitar -scaper Erik Wøllo for their second collaboration following 2008’s “Stream Of Thought”. Each track on offer here sees the pair weaving together a wonderful partnership of build and receding beats scapes, analogue and digital synths textures, and felt to soaring processed guitar / guitar synths textures.

The album offers up six tracks in all and each track lasts between the four and a half minute to twenty one minutes a picec; through most of the tracks hit near or around the ten minute mark- so the pair get chance to nicely explore their melodic and atmospheric themes, and the listener gets time to get nicely submerge in the tracks unfold & ebb.

Most of the tracks here have some beat based electronic or subtle ethno rytmic element present, and these nicely drift in and out of the tracks structures. Through there are a few purely synth ‘n’ processed guitar tracks that nicely add contrast & more subtle mood making edge to the album as a whole.

There’s nothing really experimental or edgy about “The Road Eternal”, but if you enjoy well-made, melodic and atmospheric up-beat ambience & mellow beat ribbed electrioncia you’ll find a lot to enjoy here. 4/5 - Roger Batty.

The Road Eternal is a new collaboration between American ambient wizard Steve Roach and Norway’s guitarist/electronic sound sculptor Erik Wøllo, and it presents their unique take on an age-old vision: the lure of the open road and what beckons us onward as we travel the back-road blacktops. Wielding a dazzling array of electronics, the duo crafts long excursions (the opening title track is a massive 21-plus minutes) into desolate yet beautiful electronic landscapes, seamlessly fusing frenetic, propulsive synthesizers and rhythms with melancholic, evocative ambient textures. By turns expansive and intimate, the album cries out to be played on moonlight rides. -Bill Binkelman

Building upon the riches of their first collaboration, Streams of Thought, Roach and Wollo team up once again to shake the electronic firmament loose and rebuild its infrastructure from the ground up. One of the biggest differences first noticed on their wonderful The Road Eternal is the duration of the pieces therein; jettisoning the prior recording’s episodic, albeit involving, construct for longer works allows the duo’s gorgeously crafted and intricate structures room to breathe. The title track alone benefits greatly from this approach; Roach and Wollo ratchet up the atmosphere layer upon layer, a spiky, modulated sequence pulses and grows, until the background becomes foreground, splaying vivid brushstrokes of tincture and hue across the stereofield. Comparisons are meaningless here, analogues moot: the duo’s unique sound patterns approximate little else that currently acts as vogue along any contemporary genre continuum. On “Depart at Sunrise”, cinemascopic strings signal the great, dawning expanse of past epochs, ripples of melancholia soon pierced by strangely arcing tones and cooing sequencer—amidst a record abundant with compelling sounds, this is one of the duo’s best works. “First Twilight” and the closing “Night Strands” (great title!) work their nocturnal jones more through the underbrush, soft, scuttling noises glowing like phosphorescent plankton in the wake of a dark sea, synths mimicking foghorns that cycle through the pitch black. What light then blossoms out becomes quite revealing indeed, illuminating The Road Eternal as another superfine work from its stalwart creators. - DARREN BERGSTEIN

The Road Eternal is the second intercontinental collaboration between renowned American synthesist Steve Roach and one of the finest musicians in the European electronic music scene, Norwegian guitarist Erik Wollo. The album contains six lengthy pieces. While Roach develops his characteristic hypnotic electronic ambiance, percussion and creative sequences, Wollo contributes mesmerizing melodies and patterns with his processed electric guitars and guitar synthesizers.

Wollo and Roach bring their different perspectives and environments to the music. Whereas Steve Roach lives in the expansive desert southwest of the United States, Wollo has his home in the land of majestic fjords and mountain rivers.

“We are both passionate about the observation of nature and the poetic character of natural surroundings,” says Wollo. “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,” indicates Roach, “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.”

Erik Wollo and Steve Roach started to work on The Road Eternal at the beginning of 2010. The final sessions took place in the fall of the same year, when Wollo traveled to Tucson (Arizona) to play at the SoundQuest Fest. After the concert, the two musicians finalized their ideas in Steve Roach’s famed The Timeroom Studio. The sessions lasted several days. “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,” says Roach.

The Road Eternal exhibits the talent of two of electronic music’s most recognizable masters. It is another excellent ambient-trance album to add to your collection. -Angel Romero

Long awaited second collaboration of two highly respected veteran composers came to its final stage during Erik's visit in Arizona when performing on SoundQuest Fest in October of 2010. I am immediately impressed by the eye-catching 4-panel digipak with absolutely stunning blue colored images (photographs by Erik and Steve). But the visual part of this release is very soon leveled by the sonics as the opening title track "The Road Eternal" unfolds its 21 minutes long trip. Slower magical desert ambience quickly traverses into breathing, rhythmed and melodic parts, this is crystal clear sonic orgasm!!! No questions here, two true masters are at the top of their craft and musicianship merging with highest precision their own distinct trademarking styles. Absolutely exciting and adventurous overture!!! But this spectacular sonic travel continues on "Depart At Sunrise", which can be easily described as "crème de la crème" of melodious soundscaping. Delicately crafted and sculpted textures where hauntingly evocative atmospheres are skillfully balanced with highly attractive smooth, pulsating and energetic passages. To me, both these compositions are the most unique and imaginative pieces of art Steve and Erik did together so far, thank you so much, Maestros!!! Warm and dreamy "The Next Place" sounds quite mechanical and futuristic with always presented vibrant groovy elements, one of the most uplifting compositions on this route. "First Twilight" is more aerial and nostalgic cooling down piece. As night settles down, "Travel By Moonlight" begins, nice mid-tempo rhythmic tribal ride through still hot, but refreshing and darkened desert vistas, mesmerizing and relaxing! "Night Strands" peacefully completes this truly amazing, enterprising and panoramic trip. And don't forget to pack your headphones too! The Road Eternal is undoubtedly another highly polished pearl in both artists' discographies, magnificently rich in all aspects, musically, sonically and visually!!! I am a proud owner (and reviewer too) of this masterpiece!!! -Richard Gürtler

I’m in the process of downloading my first ambient album for 2012 (this one) and it occurred to me that I hadn’t posted my favourites from 2011. I listen to ambient electronic music constantly, so the search is always on for new sounds to get the words moving. There isn’t a clearly defined sound that works for me; some of these albums are droney, others pulse and prickle like chilled-out cactii, some are hardly there at all. But they all work for me, and maybe they’ll work for you, too.

So, my most played ambient albums of 2011 (new to me, maybe not new to the rest of the world) are:
(1) The Road Eternal by Steve Roach and Erik Wøllo – I wasn’t a huge fan of their first collaboration, but this was a hit right from the first play. A late entry for the year (November) it quickly rocketed to first place, partly on the strength of the second track, “Depart at Sunrise”, which is so Bladerunneresque it hurts, but mostly because the whole album is awesome.
(2) Sleep Theory Volume 1 by Altus – The second track, “Session 2″, is a rival for Steve Roach’s “Structures from Silence” for the perfect track to write to. It was beaten by “Depart at Sunrise” by just one playing. Best of all, it’s a free download, so there’s no reason not to give it a go.
(3) Monsters (OST) by John Hopkins – I loved this movie and made note of the soundtrack as I was watching. Didn’t realize that I’d actually bought the album in December 2010 but never listened to it. Minus some jumpy moments, it’s a brilliant writing accompaniment. Listen to this track and see what you think.
(4) Conception, various artists – A wonderful anthology of “beatless, serene ambient music”. Here’s the trailer. Also free, although I can’t find a direct link to the download page. Worth hunting for.
(5) There’s no clear album at this position, so I thought I’d just shout out to a few that I loved as well: For Nihon (another anthology, this time to benefit Japan after the earthquake early in the year), Bliss Was It In That Dawn To Be Alive by Arms and Sleepers, The Desert Inbetween by Steve Roach and Brian Parnham, and, finally, just about everything by Loscil, including their new album Coast/Range/Arc.

And that’s. I’m coming to the end of a new novel at the moment (hence my tardiness at posting anything anywhere) so this music is getting a real hammering. Meanwhile, I’m eagerly anticipating the tunes of 2012 and the words they will inspire. -Sean Williams, “the premier Australian speculative fiction writer of the age” (Aurealis), the “Emperor of Sci-Fi” (Adelaide Advertiser), and the “King of Chameleons” (Australian Book Review)

“The Road Eternal” is the second collaborative album by Steve Roach and Erik Wøllo, following up their 2009-release “Stream of Thought." The framework and fundament of the album's music was laid down by the two composers in the days following Steve’s first SoundQuest Fest at the end of 2010. “The Road Eternal” features highly cinematic (time)travel music inspired by the grandness, beauty and mysterious veil hanging over grand natural environments. Six longer tracks dig the deep end of wide open plains and spaces.
The scenic route is kicked off by the 21-minute title track which at first seems quite uniform, but soon nicely evolves into expansive sonic vistas with energetic sequencer and rhythmic undercurrents while giving way to Wøllo’s smooth (and at times even melodic) guitar work. The groovy bass loop on “Depart at Sunrise” is enriched by hovering soundscapes and Erik’s trademark soft yearning guitar licks. Beautiful heavy bass drones start the 12-minute “The Next Place," a more rhythm-oriented piece with a high-tech edge accompanied by Wøllo’s spherical textural guitar work. “First Twilight” is a non-rhythmic, very airy and lush spherical painting. Things turn up the minimal alley with “Travel by Moonlight," given colour by Erik’s smooth guitar and airy tapestries. The 5-minute “Night Strands” puts an end to the 63-minute album with lush spherics and David Sylvian-like guitar soundscapes moulded into a moody and expansive painting with nice environmental sounds.
All in all, both the atmospheric and rhythmic/sequencer-spiced music find a home on “The Road Eternal," an offering of harmonic and melodic sonic scenery to trigger the mind and a vehicle to transport the listener to new places to be discovered. -Bert Strolenberg

If we paid attention only to music made by Steve Roach and Erik Wollo we would still have a lot to choose from. Between the two of them they have released dozens upon dozens of amazing space, ambient and contemporary instrumental albums. Each made their mark both as innovator and visionary and their surprising endurance in a world not ready for space-time players has thankfully lead them together into two musical collaborations thus far. THE ROAD ETERNAL (63'28") is their second CD as a duo - and feels much different than their first, "Stream of Thought" (2009). The six tracks are longer time-wise, as these beautiful realizations stretch out along a contour of hidden designs. The pieces develop fast, with reverberant synthesizer chords giving way to synchronized grooves. With the introduction of mechanized patterns and the resulting restless energy, space and time are seemingly transformed. Extending above the building electric tension are rich melodic lines - whose slow pacing leaves plenty of air for churning e-riffs and commanding basslines to motor onward. THE ROAD ETERNAL, with its breathing thought tones, ethereal leads and unhindered pulsations, produces such aural and emotional wonders - along with the profound images this music awakens in us. -Chuck van Zyl

The Road Eternal's beauty is its evolution and all the ramifications that its title track spreads throughout this Roach/Wollo’s 2nd collaboration. If Steam of Thought was an album where the ambient reigned over some electronic structures, The Road Eternal is all the opposite. It’s a lively opus where both masters of sound illusions mould rhythms and atmospheres as spellbinding as perplexes on hypnotic minimalist structures where sequences are skilfully forged into wonderful layers of a fusion synths and guitars. It results in surprising rhythms where hooting melodies coming from guitars and synths lament float and swim in the cosmos, like celestial harmonies in contradiction with the increasing rhythms. And when we pay attention and throw our hearing deeper we have the vague impression to hear a fusion of Structures from Silence and @shra from Manuel Göttsching’s band. So be ready for something unexpected cause it’s as much difficult to enter The Road Eternal’s atmospheres as to get out from it. Chronicle of a surprising album and another small master piece from our friend Roach who, undoubtedly, continues to amaze and to charm.

The whole thing starts as if we were in the cosmos, sat by the edge of a river which sparkles of gleaming arpeggios. Slender musical layers, from what seems to be a fusion synths and guitars, drive slow lamentations which are criss-crossing and floating lazily in a fanciful firmament where tranquility filled the space. The heavy, ambient and dramatic effect is not without recalling the analog years of Ashra Temple. A rhythm is drawing in the background, but it’s without sequences. There are nervous synth pads of which hatched chords collide, forming a chaotic rhythmic movement which skips nervously. This linear rhythmic line dined by jolts is simply brilliant. It pounds with a soft frenzy and rolls in loop as wavelets on a sea which wakes up. And the sea will wake up! Little by little this rhythm livens up with the adding of fine and subtle pulsations / percussions, while the sky becomes strewed by fine musical shooting stars which sparkle and fly like in the analog years of Schulze and that slow astral layers fly over The Road Eternal by delicate movements of wandering. It’s an idyllic fusion that leads us halfway, there where guitars laments pierce this hatched rhythmic and the tempo becomes livelier. We are in deep in Steve Roach musical labyrinths with a suave and enchanting evolution which is finely wriggling with the addition of heterogeneous percussions and pulsations unique to his universe, whereas delicate morphic layers coming out of a synth /guitar fusion are suspended and undulate in contrast with this progressive cadence. Minimalist loops of The Road Eternal's fragile rhythm hiccup on a quavering progression. Always so vaporous this rhythm breaks itself with a nervously syncopated approach which pounds fervently beneath bewitching guitar layers and howling. A solitary guitar that let goes superb morphic solos. Isolated solos on a tempo without sequences but which quavers over an outfit of tones and heterogeneous percussions of tribal structures that make the charm of Steve Roach. And The Road Eternal goes out as it had start, leaving its musical imprints on 5 other following tracks.

Depart at Sunrise spreads out its rangy and gloomy musical waves as slow flights of an eagle on hunting. It’s an ambient intro assorted of soft ethereal layers and sweet laments coming from a hypersensitive guitar which are finally pulled by a delicate rhythmic which skips finely on the tips of its chords. A cadence with charmingly harmonious jolts, a bit weaved as those on the title-track, flooded by very nice synth layers and supported by stunning glaucous ball bearings which are dazzling strangeness from a percussion universe unique to Steve Roach’s overflowing imagination. And, lasciviously, synths layers and guitars laments float over this rhythmic warmly mesmerizing and strangely morphic for a track which offers quite a lively beat. The Next Place is a long track which swarms of a life liven up by a mixture of pulsations and heterogeneous percussions. A world of percussions which pound and run at nice flow on light guitar riffs and slinky as well as moving synth layers. It’s a track which is highly similar to Travel by Moonlight which on the other hand is more sinuous, ambiguous and hypnotic. Delicate, First Twilight floats above our thoughts as an angel above our dreams. The fusion of synths and guitars layers shape a universe of extreme solitude on this ambient track, quite as on Night Strands which on the other hand is more syncretic and soaks in an eclectic sound fauna on a guitar substructure equal to Michael Rother’s sounds.

I just loved The Road Eternal, as much the title track as the 5 other jewels of a similar musical texture but so different in the final. The Road Eternal is a musical experience which rides long silent and nightly surges of synths and guitars as ambient as spectral on rhythms absent of sequences. Unusual and uncommon rhythms, witnesses of a sound research that establishes Roach and his collaborators in a league of one’s own in this constantly evolving musical world. This 2nd collaboration Roach/Wollo is a brilliant stroke of genius and a meticulous work which brings to a simply brilliant result. It’s poetry without words, a bedside book makes of sounds and an inescapable companion for empty nights when we try to understand what we are doing on this road which, by moments, seems to us so eternal. -Sylvain Lupari