Track Listing

1. The Breathing Stone
2. Desert Walkabout - Kevin Braheny
3. New Moon At Forbidden Mesa
4. Desert Prayer - Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny
5. In The Heat Of Venus
6. The Slow Turning
7. Western Spaces - Steve Roach, Kevin Braheny

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #136272 in Music
• Released on: 1992-01-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Combining Roach's ambiance with Braheny's lyrical passages on electronic woodwinds, Western Spaces was the first of two collaborations based on the landscapes of the American Southwest--in particular the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The ambient "New Moon at Forbidden Mesa" contains hints of high winds, muted angelic voices, and echoing coyote howls, while "Desert Prayer," opening with a cathedralesque keyboard figure, introduces a synthesized vocal sound not unlike a violin or a Middle Eastern cantor. Where later Roach albums deal strictly in color and timbre, Spaces incorporates the idea of melodic text. The solo voices and arpeggiated figures become a narrative that knits together the streams of consciousness expressed through layers of drone and percussion--like a sidewinder leaving trails across the desert floor. --James Rotondi

New Frontier
"Western Spaces is as mysterious and captivating as the land from which it takes its name."

Keyboard
"This stuff doesn't just lie there simpering, it gets up and walks."

Customer Reviews

I'm jonesin' for the desert
I go out to Tucson once or twice a year. One of my favorite places to take a walk or go hiking is in Sabino Canyon Recreation area, part of Saguaro National Park, which just so happens to be down the road a piece, so to speak, from Steve Roach's place. This album would be a good soundtrack for a movie shot in Sabino, in all the seasons and in all kinds of weather.

Its transporting, and full of desert emotions and desert spirits,so much so that sometimes its almost frightening...the desert can be that way.

I'm currently also reading Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire". The desert in print, like Roach's album is the desert set to music.

I'm listening to Desert Solitaire a lot now, a really good CD. I guess I'm just jonesin' for the desert.

the sound of dry air and sand, and blue, blue skies......
This CD represents the zenith in ambient musical imagination. Roach has actually captured sonically the expereince of gazing out over a summer desert landscape. Anyone who has been lucky enought to wander around the US desert southwest on foot, horseback or even in a car, chasing the endless horizon and feeling the heat waft over the skin, will recognize the emotions that this disc elicits. Minimal percussion throughout, although what is there enhances the deep, shimmering synth waves tremendously. Please play this on a high-end sound system and don't be timid with the volume control.
Highly recommended.

Richard Burmer RIP
Sad to report that Richard Burmer has passed away at the age of 50. :(

His first 2 albums are excellent. All 5 albums and the Day Part albums he appeared on are worth buying and adding to your collection.