Dynamic Stillness

The latest of Steve Roach's multi-disc releases for 2009 begins with one of his darkest, angriest musical moments yet. That may sound strange to casual listeners of his work, given Roach's explorations of contemplative textures over the decades, but the sense of dark depths he has explored since the '90s is more important now than ever, and this release shows it to the full. "Birth of Still Places," with its bass-heavy, shaded, and echoed growls in a dark void almost has more in common with Thomas Köner and Lull than anything else; if Roach has explored such areas before, he has perhaps never done so quite as dramatically from the start of a particular release. The song itself moves into a gentler ebb and flow as it progresses, but it nonetheless shades the album as a whole, exploring the more haunted, vast-sounding aesthetic of Roach as heard in many of his recent releases. The sense of slow, ominous, but still welcome rhythms remains crucial — calling a song "Long Tide" is as good a sign as any to imply a cycle meant to be as close to eternal as one would want — and if this almost seems like "just" another Steve Roach release as it progresses, it is still nonetheless one of his best in recent years, an embrace of a cold serenity that compels instead of repels — and, it must also be said, it sports a perfect title.