Composer, producer, synthesist and multi-instrumentalist, Steve Roach was born February 16, 1955, in La Mesa, near San Diego, in California. He is fascinated by the desert landscapes and wide open spaces in the Southwest of the United States, as well as the outback deserts of Australia. Steve’s style has evolved from purely electronic sounds to the combination of synthetic sounds with some of the most primitive musical instruments.
Steve bought his first synthesizer in 1978. Although his first influences were German electronic acts like Tangerine Dream, Can and Klaus Schulze, Steve soon went beyond and developed his own style.
Los Angeles’ hectic way of life led him to isolate himself in a musical sanctuary. Initially, Steve composed intense sequencer-based music. Later, he started to compose more tranquil and atmospheric music as a response to the rhythmic and sequenced world that characterized his earlier music.
After Empetus, Steve’s compositions mirrored his impressions of southwestern landscapes and world music. His trips to Australia had a profound effect on his music. The desert’s attraction led Steve to move to Tucson, Arizona in the southwestern United States.
“I seek musical instruments that allow me to create sounds in an attractive and intuitive way. It’s something intriguing. That’s the difference between a keyboardist and a synthesis,” says Steve.
Steve Roach records and produces his music in his own studio called the Time Room. It’s a room full of marvelous electronic music devices that Roach uses to extract a multitude of spellbinding sounds.
Steve Roach is restless in his search for new sounds that connect with an ancient source of truth in this ever changing world. Roach has earned his position in the international first tier of major progressive music artists over the last decades through his ceaseless productivity, constant innovation, open minded collaborations with numerous artists and the psychological depth of his music.
Recognized worldwide as one of the leading innovators of contemporary electronic music, he is a very prolific musician, who has released dozens of albums since 1981, including the ground-breaking double CD Dreamtime Return; the critically acclaimed tribal-trance extravaganza Artifacts; the award-winning Earth Island, the second collaboration with Mexican multi-instrumentalist Jorge Reyes and Spanish guitarist and producer Suso Sáiz; the independently produced The Dream Circle; his collaboration with Belgian musician Vidna Obmana, Well of Souls; and Kiva, a mind-bending masterpiece featuring hallucinogenic shamanic rites, synthesizer landscapes and primeval instruments, combining the talents of Roach, Michael Stearns and Ron Sunsinger.
“At the melting point in the ocean of desert, this awesome expanse of a 180-degree horizon slowly works on the perception, revealing yet again the Other desert of inner regions that I crave to be in,” says Steve Roach.
The album titled Live Transmission (from the Drone Zone at SømaFM) (2-CD) by Steve Roach is a manifestation of the artist’s exceptional musical prowess. The two-disc album was created during a single two-hour session, a mere two days after Roach’s notable May 2013 Ambicon concert. The record is a true representation of Roach’s innate ability to create electronic music that transcends beyond the norm.
Roach’s meticulous preparation spanning months culminated in his creation of an exceptional blend of slow-flow moods and evocative soundscapes, interwoven with ecstatic rhythmic sections born from hands-on analog sound creation. This resulted in an energy transfer that flowed directly from the artist through his instruments and out to the listener.
Roach, who is a regular artist on the “Drone Zone” channel of the San Francisco-based internet radio station SømaFM, traveled with a portable version of his Timeroom Studio to the station’s headquarters for this release.
The album, which featured all-new soundscapes and evolving themes from classic pieces, offers an expanded odyssey of Roach’s creations. The set is expertly crafted and woven into a seamless masterpiece that captures the essence of Roach’s intuitive creative process.
In 2015, Steve Roach released Etheric Imprints, an album that explores the depths of electronic and ambient music through four long-form pieces focused on sound, silence, and time-altering forms. The 28-minute title track features a highly processed electric grand piano as its centerpiece, interacting with an expansive electro-acoustic environment to create a meditative, slowly evolving soundscape. Supported by an undercurrent of analog modular synths, the piece evokes a sense of stillness and mystery. The cloudy cover art by Tuyen Q. Nguyen mirrors the music’s themes of expanded awareness, with the album offering a constantly shifting auditory experience that invites deep, reflective listening.
Selected Discography:
Now (Fortuna 1982)
Traveler (Domino 1983, Fortuna 1987)
Structures from Silence (Fortuna 1984)
Quiet Music 1 (Fortuna 1986)
Quiet Music 2 (Fortuna 1986)
Quiet Music 3 (Fortuna 1986)
Empetus (Fortuna 1986)
Western Spaces, with Kevin Braheny, Thom Brennan (Fortuna, 1990)
Quiet Music (Fortuna 1988)
The Leaving Time, with Michael Shrieve (Novus/RCA, 1988)
Dreamtime Return (Fortuna 1988)
Stormwarning: Live in Concert (Soundquest 1989, Lektronic Soundscapes, 1992)
Desert Solitaire (with Kevin Braheny, Michael Stearns; Fortuna, 1989)
Australia: Sound of the Earth, with David Hudson, Sarah Hopkins (Fortuna, 1990)
Strata, with Robert Rich (Hearts of Space, 1990)
Now / Traveller (Fortuna, 1992)
World’s Edge (Fortuna, 1992)
Soma, with Robert Rich (Hearts of Space, 1992)
Suspended Memories: Forgotten Gods, with Jorge Reyes, Suso Sáiz (Hearts of Space, 1993)
The Lost Pieces (Rubicon 1993, Relic/Projekt, 1995)
Origins (Fortuna, 1993)
Solitaire: Ritual Ground, with Elmar Shulte (Silent, 1993)
Suspended Memories: Earth Island, with Jorge Reyes, Suso Sáiz (Fathom, 1994)
Artifacts (Fortuna, 1994)
The Dream Circle (Soundquest, 1994)
Well of Souls, with Vidna Obmana (Projekt, 1995)
Kiva, with Michael Stearns, Ron Sunsinger (Fathom, 1995)
The Dreamer Descends (Amplexus, 1995)
The Magnificent Void (Fathom, 1996)
On This Planet (Hearts of Space, 1997)
Slow Heat (Timeroom Editions, 1998)
Light Fantastic (Hearts of Space, 1999)
Atmospheric Conditions (Timeroom Editions, 1999)
The Dream Circle (Timeroom Editions, 1999)
Truth & Beauty: The Lost Pieces 2 (Timeroom Editions, 1999)
Midnight Moon (Projekt, 2000)
Early Man (Projekt, 2001)
Time of the Earth (2001)
Core (Timeroom Editions, 2001)
Streams & Currents (2001)
Darkest Before Dawn (2002)
Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (Projekt, 2003)
Texture Maps: The Lost Pieces 3 (Timeroom Editions, 2003)
Life Sequence (2003)
Fever Dreams (2004)
Holding the Space: Fever Dreams II (Timeroom Editions, 2004)
Places Beyond: The Lost Pieces 4 (Timeroom Editions, 2004)
Possible Planet (2005)
New Life Dreaming (2005)
Immersion: One (Projekt, 2006)
Proof Positive (2006)
Kairos: The Meeting of Time and Destiny (2006)
Immersion: Two (Projekt, 2006)
Fever Dreams III (2007)
Immersion : Three (2007)
A Deeper Silence (2008)
Landmass (Timeroom Editions, 2008)
Dynamic Stillness (2009)
Destination Beyond (2009)
Afterlight (2009)
Immersion: Four (Timeroom Editions, 2009)
Sigh of Ages (2010)
Immersion Five – Circadian Rhythms (2011)
Groove Immersion (2012)
Back to Life (2012)
Soul Tones (2012)
Future Flows (2013)[8]
Spiral Meditations (2013)
Bloodmoon Rising (2014)
The Delicate Beyond (2014)
The Delicate Forever (2014)
The Desert Collection – Volume 1 (2014)
Invisible (2015)
Skeleton Keys (Projekt, 2015)
The Skeleton Collection 2005 – 2015 (Timeroom Editions, 2015)
Etheric Imprints (Projekt, 2015)
Bloodmoon Rising – The Complete 5 hour collection (Timeroom Editions, 2015)
Vortex Immersion Zone (Timeroom Editions, 2015)
This Place to Be (2016)
Shadow of Time (Projekt Records, 2016)
Spiral Revelation (Projekt Records, 2016)
Fade to Gray (2016)
Painting in the Dark (2016)
The Passing (Timeroom Editions, 2017)
Nostalgia for the Future (Timeroom Editions, 2017)
Long Thoughts (Projekt Records, 2017)
Updated biography.