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Desert Solitaire - Steve Roach *Kevin Braheny* Michael Stearns - 1989 (24/96 Vinyl Rip)

Posted By: Arend
Desert Solitaire - Steve Roach *Kevin Braheny* Michael Stearns - 1989 (24/96 Vinyl Rip)

Desert Solitaire - Steve Roach *Kevin Braheny* Michael Stearns - 1989
Vinyl Rip in 24 Bit-96 kHz | Redbook 16 Bit-44 kHz | FLAC | Cue | No Log | Scans | FP*FF*TB | 1,19 GB + 267 MB
1989 / Genre: Ambient - Fortuna Records - DE

Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny, and Michael Stearns have established themselves as conceptual innovators and major solo recording artists. These three synthesists collaborated for the first time on "Desert Solitaire".
"The Southwest desert is inviting and intoxicatingly beautiful," said Roach, "but it is also dangerous and frightening". We wanted to capture the desert's timeless beauty, and we also wanted to create in sound the more visceral emotional experience of actually being there. The music contains some lovely desert imagery, but it also contains some of the desert's ominous, potentially lethal undertones. We were inspired by our personal experiences in the desert, by Edward Abbey's book, Desert Solitaire, and by Abbey's introduction to the Desert Images book, with photographs by David Muench. For us, this album is as much a tribute to Edward Abbey as it is to the desert itself."
"This is an impressive album that should be listened with dimmed light in the late evening; it is one of my favourite ambient albums; Enjoy this album (very relaxing effect) and excellent recording".

Note > No silence was deleted; please burn this album gapless..




Review:

If you buy only one ambient, atmospheric album, make it this one. For 13 years, we keep listening to Desert Solitaire. Why? Because the music is as timeless as the desert it represents. There are no words, melodic or rhythmic cliches, or common reference points with music you know, so it remains pristine and unconnected to musical style and fashion. This is pure impression delivered via an electromagnetic medium. Played at night (which I highly recommend), it is captivating, relaxing and purges the mind of petty concerns, as they are over-ridden by this tranquil reminder of nature's power, vastness and timelessness.

There is incredible, powerful visual imagery in this album. For example, track 7, "Shiprock", the impression of a broad-based rock formation is scored as very low rumbling tones, demonstrating the formation's massive base and size; and a constant ominous high tone, representing the dizzying height the formation reaches. Also during this cut, the volume cresendos from start to midpoint and then descresendos to the end, giving us the impression of passing a powerful force from nature. Just as in the desert, water is scarce on this album - the only hint of moisture is a tingling that we hear while watching the "Cloud of Promise" (track 5) approach and grow from the horizon. The rattlesnakes are on track 6.

It boggles the mind that a collection of impressions so elemental in essence could have been set to music by mere human beings, but yet here it is. This album is a legal hallucinogen, so use it in moderation.

Russell J. Grasso@Amazon.com


Track List:
    01 Flatlands
    02 Labyrinth
    03 Specter
    04 The Canyon's Embrace
    05 Cloud of Promise

    06 Knowledge & Dust
    07 Shiprock
    08 Highnoon
    09 Empty Time
    10 From the Heart of Darkness
    11 Desert Solitaire




Linn LP12 with Lingo power supply
Ittok LV II arm
Ortofon MC 20 Super II Cartridge
Accuphase C11 Phono-pre
Pro-Line Silver interlink
Tascam US 144 ADC - Audioquest Coffee USB Cable
Wavelab 6 and CD Wave 1.95.2

Tweaks:
Noise Eater
Masterbase (under the feet of the turntable)
Boston Audio Mat 1 (*upgrade)