Steve Roach & Jorge Reyes - Vine ~ Bark & Spore (2000)

Seguimos con la dicografía del mexicano Jorge Reyes. Ya hemos presentado hace poco a este supergrupo de música ambiental llamado Suspended Memories, formado por Suso Sáiz, Steve Roach y Jorge Reyes... Ahora este disco trae a los dos últimos, en un trabajo que me resulta menos imaginativo que el comentado, pero igualmente místico y rico en ambientes y sonoridades. Música etérea de sonoridades inusuales, que trabaja a un nivel muy espiritual, una danza de trance con cantos, tambores primitivos, y la percusión de ritual chamánico moderno.

Artista: Steve Roach & Jorge Reyes

Álbum: Vine ~ Bark & Spore
Año: 2000
Género: Electrónica / Ambient / World Music
Duración: 71:59
Nacionalidad: EEUU / México

Una música que, en realidad, no es para escucharla en cualquier situación, pero es ideal para algunos momentos, de trabajo, de meditación, o de exploración. Y en este blog, donde generalmente somos exploradores del sonido, de las músicas, de la cultura latinoamericana y de todo lo que tenga que ver con la experimentación, estos discos no pueden faltar.

Vine ~ Bark & Spore (2000) is a collaborative album by ambient musicians Steve Roach and Jorge Reyes.
There is a uniquely haunting, ethereal atmosphere to this album. The music consists of tribal percussion and vocals, textural electric guitar, synthesizers and heavy reverb treatments.

Wikipedia

Los dos haciendo una especie de etnomúsica ambiental y atmosférica (Neo-Tribal o Neo-Chamánico leí por ahí).

VINE ~ BARK & SPORE captures a pure, organic sound that is rich with a potent magical atmosphere. The remote and mysterious locations deep in Mexico's historic landscape, as well as the hallucinogenic terrain of the Sonoran desert in Southern Arizona, provide the ground where this music takes place. The musical elixir was created from a surreal blending of acoustic and electronic instruments, along with voice and location recordings. With strong shamanic undercurrents, it creates an opening to step through time and again. VINE ~ BARK & SPORE offers music as medicine for the soul. The music of Roach and Reyes acts as a transmitter of the attitudes that ancient cultures had towards music and the spiritual aspects of life, while merging with the currents of today.
The Ambient music genre called "Techno-Tribal" is based on an oxymoron: the combination of sophisticated electronics with the earthy, organic sounds of so-called primitive, tribal cultures. On the surface they have nothing in common...what's going on here?
The trail was blazed by STEVE ROACH in the late 1980s, after a life-changing trip to the Australian outback, where he encountered the artifacts and instruments of the aborigines. The resulting album "Dreamtime Return" is one of the foundation stones of the genre.
Of course, anthropologists and ethnologists had been collecting music from native cultures for years; Oriental music had strongly influenced the evolution of European music in the late 19th and early 20th century, and Stravinsky had injected a dose of ethnic vitality into European classical music with "The Rite of Spring." But by the 1980s, electronic music had grown into several predictable styles: cool and mechanistic from the high-tech artists; warm and melodic from the romantics; ethereal, atmospheric, sometimes dark, dissonant and strange, from the Ambient composers.
Roach, and those who followed him, forged a new connection between electronic soundscapes and elemental musics rooted in the earthy rhythms of drums, rattles and ancient instruments like the didgeridoo, the sounds of insects, animals, and nature itself. The combination 'grounded' electronic music in the earth and in traditional acoustics, with a sound that looked backward and forward at the same time, and gave electronic music a new kind of vitality.
Today, techno-tribal is an established style on the world's map of electronic music, a fusion of ancient and contemporary that complement each other.

Steve Roach

Música etérea de sonoridades inusuales, que trabaja a un nivel muy espiritual, una danza de trance con cantos, tambores primitivos, y la percusión de ritual chamánico moderno.

Y no tengo mucho más para aportar, si escucharon algo de que lo que publiqué de Suspended Memories, este va más o menos por el mismo camino, así que directamente vean si en los comentarios alguien dice algo nuevo...

Como no encontré un buen comentario en castellano de este disco, les dejo varios en inglés. Es lo que hay...

This ambient collaboration between Roach and Reyes proves that "the music is the medicine".
Utilizing passive electronic textures (like whispering tonal hints) and distant ethnic percussives (which never take an overt presence) and vocal chants (resounding with a cavernous air) and ethereal woodwinds, Roach and Reyes generate atmospheric tapestries of sound that float like a hazy mist over a morning-lit clearing deep in some forest valley.
The tracks begin soft, meticulously passing into haunting auralscapes before other aspects arrive to generate a relaxed melodic sense to the aerial caldron of sighing harmonics. Although no domineering rhythm surfaces, the music is far from atonal, possessing seductive qualities amidst the tonal flow.
There is a distinct tidal mood to this music, creating an aural beach with low waves that creep unnoticed over the higher ground, immersing the land in currents of emotional ambiguity.
With the soft hint of tribal influences skittering through the music, these soundscapes conjure the mood of dark caves, ancient woods, and sorcerer's temples. The use of stirred water sounds adds an eerie touch to the pieces, evoking holistic pools where bathe the mystics before commencing their spells.
Swirling with shadowy hidden secrets, these 72 minutes of music afford some particularly moody ambience.

Matt Howarth

Steve Roach and Jorge Reyes — both considered pioneers in neo-shamanic, ethno tribal ambient music — release their first collaboration CD, nearly 4 years in the making. This recording captures a pure, organic sound that is rich with the potent magical atmosphere central to their music in both solo and group settings. Remote and mysterious locations in the deep of Mexico’s historic landscape, as well as the hallucinogenic terrain of the Sonoran desert in Southern Arizona, provide the ground which this music takes place upon. A surreal blending of acoustic and electronic instruments — along with voice and location recordings — create this musical elixir, one of strong shamanic undercurrents. With the intention of creating an opening to step through time and again, Vine ~ Bark & Spore offers music as the medicine for the soul. This disc is an essential record of why the music of Roach and Reyes acts as a transmitter of the attitudes that ancient cultures had towards music and the spiritual aspects of life while merging with the currents of today.
Steve Roach and Jorges Reyes have recorded numerous recordings as solo and group artists including 2 acclaimed releases under the name Suspended Memories with Madrid based guitarist Suso Saiz. Their 1994 release Earth Island won the Indie Award by AFIM for the Electronic Instrumental – Ambient category, an award equal to the Grammy in the independent music world. Both artists perform consistently in festivals and unique concert settings worldwide, such as the Jameos Del Agua, a theater in a volcanic cave on the Island of Lanzarote where Steve and Jorge first met in 1991. Their mutual intentions were soon realized when they were invited to play a spontaneous concert after having just met a few hours before. This set the tone for an on going musical relationship that has always been about capturing an on-the-edge feeling of pure emotion delivered with ceremonial intensity , mixing improvisation and compositional forms with a compelling list of instruments ranging from the Pre-Hispanic roots of Jorge in Mexico and Steve’s constant innovations with electronic and acoustic instruments. Together they create a music that goes beyond any current category and have found an audience worldwide that understands its timeless allure.

www.projekt.com

Every so often there is a release that builds in anticipation throughout the New Music contingency. There was, with the first inklings of Vine, Bark & Spore on the horizon, a great deal of propitious whisperings. A growing number of fans have discovered the music of “The Electronic Nestor”, Steve Roach. In fact his opus, The Magnificent Void came in at number one in a recent polling of hard-core Electronica fans worldwide. Many newcomers may not yet be familiar with the shamanistic rituals of Jorge Reyes, the (un)official legate of Mexican artists, a conjurer of mystical sound who has created some of the finest tribal/ritual new music in the world. Lately, his presence has not been as strong as in the early 90′s; the last taste was a track on the SOLAR compilation, his first studio recording in four years. The combination of all the aforementioned elements makes for a release of practically historic proportions. The good news is that Vine, Bark & Spore lives up to the preamble, and in our opinion surpassed expectations to a large degree.
The tactile recording quality only adds to the magic of the music. This is, after all, a Timeroom production, which nowadays seems to be synonymous with the highest order of sonic attributes. Roach’s studio employs only the finest gear for both recording and playback, allowing Steve to personally fine-tune the project at each step of the process.
Musically, the recording vacillates between Roach’s beautiful, brilliant ambient works made popular with The Magnificent Void, Atmospheric Conditions, Slow Heat, and the work of Suspended Memories – of whom both musicians numbered among the alumni, along with Spain’s Suso Saiz on “hypnotic guitar”.
The music on Vine, Bark & Spore, as the title suggests, retains a distinct organic presence with no “glitched-out” crackling, pops or distortions. Instead the work is of smooth, even natural music – almost cinematic in scope.
Drifting waves of droning synch is built layer upon layer, which when you are seated directly between your speakers, fill the listening space from front to back – amazingly recreating a sense of depth that extends far beyond the walls. Reyes, known for his collection of thousands of ancient, original ethnic instruments adds another dimension by subtly applying various shakers, drums and other sundry implements. The real magic intensifies when Reyes adds his extraordinary chant. There are no other musicians that can replicate this patented sound, and the result is mind-shattering. Where other recordings may include that one off-key element that seems out of place or anomalous, these duos are spot-on as if the pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle came together to form a perfect whole. The tendency to go overboard by the accumulation of too many disparate ideas is instead just the contrary. There is keen sense the listener experiences, one of the artists holding back and restraint, which makes the music even more suspenseful. The fact that these artists have expurgated anything that doesn’t belong only makes the CD that much more engaging. Those in attendance on the initial listening session were sitting, slack-jawed, as if experiencing music for the first time. There were no off color remarks or criticisms either, which is highly unusual for the crew at RagConEast’s ‘”Sanctuary”, where someone always finds a flaw to complain about.
Anyone who loves ambient/tribal/ritualistic electronics will cherish this special recording. The fact that this is a sonic spectacular you will play to the amusement of friends is only a plus, placing this immediately into “instant classic” status.

Glenn Hammett

Vine - Bark & Spore by Steve Roach and Jorge Reyes conjures up images of mysticism, legend and ritual. This interesting collaboration was brought into being through Reyes' mysterious guiding influence on Roach's acclaimed expansive and sweeping soundscapes. The duo are down from the horizon, bent to the dark Terran soil of the primordial world. While the production and realization are entirely hi-tech, the inspiration is from pre-industrial times. The album's spiritual symbolism has its origins in Reyes' perspective on the world and its ancient governing powers. Roach expertly directs, documents and participates in the exerience, translating the abstractions into a 21st century medium. With tape rolling, the two friends returned to a time when much of what humankind experienced was routinely accepted as myth and magic. This ancient truth shapes Vine - Bark & Spore into less of a collaboration than a spell cast.

Chuck van Zyl

I always have a bit of difficulty when someone I meet starts to talk about tastes in music. They may mention popular acts like Sting, the in-vogue Britney Spears and the latest band who have been exalted to the dizzy heights of mass commercialisim and perhaps an all-too-brief public adulation, before they usually dissapear into the furnace of "has beens" or failed fashion icons lost to the vague ideals of what is in, and what is not.
So when I mention my choice Steve Roach, I usually get a quizzical look and then I have to try and describe his music, which can be a bit of a challenge. When I mention words like atmospheric, tribal ambient, electronic, etc., I get my listener even more perplexed as to what this music is all about. Usually if the participant is willing I may raid my music collection, and hand him or her several compact discs to sample. The resultant remarks always makes for interesting conversation. Some do not undestand at all, some smile weakly and say it was okay, and some come back to me full of praise eager to hear more; such are the vagaries of musical taste and expectation. Steve's music has never been "fashionable" but to people who know or the people who discover his music it remains a potent force in their listening world.
The guy’s been around twenty years or more developing and seeking out new ways to present music, and it's always a thrill to hear the latest album that has been created within Steve's desert studio in Tucson. It never ceases to amaze me how he can keep up the quality of music that he does. But it happens, and VINE ~ BARK AND SPORE is the latest chapter on a long road that has taken many twists and turns, but a road that seemingly has no end, and I for one am pleased at that.
VINE ~ BARK AND SPORE is an album that combines the best of Steve’s styles mixed together in a sonic cauldron of sounds that envisage past times, future experiences, thought, feelings of hope, and lost primal memories that can never again be fully regained. Playing with Steve on this album is renowned Mexican soundsmith Jorge Reyes, who adds his own individual brand of powerful chanting and assorted instrumentation including clay pots, flutes and whistles.
Although Steve provides most of the electronic soundworlds on this album, much of the albums strength lies in the two musicians playing and combining each others' musical traditions. In some instances Steve would play the ocarina, flutes, waterpots and stones, and Jorge would instigate the more electronic aspects of keyboard sound. The resulting cross-fertilization of instrument sculpting makes for an intoxicating brew of soundworlds, verging on an atmosphere that can only be compared to a participating in a shamans ritual. It is also a music that can invoke a mindful visual feedback within the listener; such is its potency in creating a musical whole.
If one looks back at musical tradition going back thousands of years, music was created to enter different states of consciousness when people invoked the gods and spirits that they needed to bring into their lives to perhaps reap a good harvest, or gain power over an enemy. A lot of music has lost this powerful, earthy feeling, but with an album like VINE ~ BARK AND SPORE it is fully reinstated. This is music as it should be, an intense experience, formulated to fit perfectly into a person's deep and hidden psyche that a lot of people prefer to keep hidden away from a modern world, but is always there no matter who we are.

Gary Andrews

VINE ~ BARK & SPORE is the *ultimate* in tribal primal electronic ambience. Steve and Jorge Reyes – two thirds of Suspended Memories (Suso Saiz is the other third) – have been collaborating for years. This redefines music. Steve always raises the ceiling. Jorge's tribal instincts and his determination to honor and celebrate his heritage push the ceiling higher still. The performance on this album is as close to perfect as it gets! The richness of desert ambience and tribal influence merge into a stream of consciousness. Steve has gone far beyond the artistic plateaus that he set himself. Jorge continues to dig for his ancestral roots. The uniqueness of this sonic playground is the uniqueness of music!

Jim Brenholts

Steve Roach has been captivating fans of ambient music for years; his passion for creating evocative and complex sonic structures has fostered his commendable and pioneering output, often transcending the clichés of "ethnoambient" and moving into more adventurous territory (and for this, he shares a similar stage with Vidna Obmana, his longtime friend and collaborator). This new release, on his own Timeroom Editions label, is a collaboration with Jorge Reyes, best known for his ethnomusicological approach to music making with a special emphasis on indigenous and shamanic traditions from his native Mexico. It was good to hear from Reyes again, after he has spent some years in relative obscurity (once a very active composer / musician, he hasn't released a project in years). If you are at all familiar with the work of these artists, you will recognise that all of the elements are here on this new album. From Reyes: traditional percussions, body rhythms, vocals and flutes. From Roach: haunting echoes, beautiful synths and ambience. These elements flirt with each other and blend seamlessly in these seven long pieces (over 70 minutes worth in total). Rhythms rise and fall; they carry you on their backs and take you to strange and wonderful places full of mystery and tradition. Although there are a few stronger rhythms here ("The Holy Dirt" and the incredible "Healing Temple"), mostly the mood is more suggestive than it is direct. Rhythms are implied, movements alluded to, the sounds of the rainstick, the striking of drums, distant chants, drifting harmonics, echoes of voices and songs from the past all lend a fabulous mystique to this music. The disc ends with a final flutter of percussion from Reyes disappearing into the silence. This album carries a fitting epigraph (with the same alliterative charm as "the medium is the message"), always known and yet it seems long forgotten: "the music is the medicine".

Richard di Santo

This ambient collaboration between Roach and Reyes proves that "the music is the medicine".
Utilizing passive electronic textures (like whispering tonal hints) and distant ethnic percussives (which never take an overt presence) and vocal chants (resounding with a cavernous air) and ethereal woodwinds, Roach and Reyes generate atmospheric tapestries of sound that float like a hazy mist over a morning-lit clearing deep in some forest valley.
The tracks begin soft, meticulously passing into haunting auralscapes before other aspects arrive to generate a relaxed melodic sense to the aerial caldron of sighing harmonics. Although no domineering rhythm surfaces, the music is far from atonal, possessing seductive qualities amidst the tonal flow.
There is a distinct tidal mood to this music, creating an aural beach with low waves that creep unnoticed over the higher ground, immersing the land in currents of emotional ambiguity.
With the soft hint of tribal influences skittering through the music, these soundscapes conjure the mood of dark caves, ancient woods, and sorcerer's temples. The use of stirred water sounds adds an eerie touch to the pieces, evoking holistic pools where bathe the mystics before commencing their spells.
Swirling with shadowy hidden secrets, these 72 minutes of music afford some particularly moody ambience.

Matt Howarth

 

Para escuchar el disco: steveroach.bandcamp.com

 

 

 

Lista de Temas:
1. Clearing Place
2. Sorcerer's Temple
3. The Holy Dirt
4. Night Journey
5. Spore and Bark
6. Healing Temple
7. Gone From Here

Alineación:
- Jorge Reyes / Drums, Flute [Bamboo, Prehispanic Clay], Ocarina, Percussion [Clay Water Pots, Turtle Shell], Rainstick, Voice, Whistle
- Steve Roach / Didgeridoo, Flute [Lakota Plains], Percussion [Distant, Sampled], Sequenced By [Rhythm Programming], Synthesizer [Analog, Digital], Voice