Steve Roach / vidnaObmana: Somewhere Else (Ascension of Shadows 1) (Digital)

Steve Roach / Vidna Obmana’s 1999 release was an ultra-immersive 3CD collection subtitled “Meditations For the Millennium.” With the intention of creating a place of solace for what they were sensing with the approaching year 2000 and beyond, the three and a half hour work feels especially potent and nourishing when revisited today. Available as a limited edition of 2000, it quickly sold out and remains a popular title with Roach/Obmana fans. To celebrate 20 years, Projekt makes Ascension of Shadows a name-your-price download at Bandcamp for a limited time.

“This set remain’s among our favorite work from the many collaborations we created together. Recorded in Belgium in October 1997, the music creation flowed over the course of a week, with each day building to the next. During this time in the studio, our collaborative/improvisational connection moved towards a telepathic interaction. This mode is the place we thrived. We hardly spoke words, working instinctually and speaking though sounds and music; always reaching for an expression of pure emotion that emanated from the cracks between worlds to which our ears were tuned. Twenty years later it feels like we just created this last week.”
– Steve Roach – Vidna Obmana 12-10-19

The final copies of 2005’s single-CD Somewhere Else. The 6-panel digipak contains the album-length track “Somewhere Else,” originally the first disc of the 3CD set.

Original 2005 text:

First released as a limited edition of 2000 in 1999, the 3-CD box set Ascension of Shadows quickly sold out, and has remained a highly-desired prize for Roach / Obmana fans. In response to consistent requests, In 2005 Projekt reissued the first disc in the series, the long-form album-length “Somewhere Else.” This track is without doubt among the most serene & purely atmospheric of Roach / Obmana’s recorded work. The Ascension of Shadows 3-CD box set was subtitled “Meditations For the Millennium;” the intentions for creating a place of solace for what the artists were sensing, with the approaching anticipation of the year 2000 and beyond, feels especially potent and nourishing when heard today.