Steve Roach - Quiet Music 1

First time vinyl pressings of Steve Roach's Quiet Music series, originally released on cassette in 1986. Much like a lot of the similarly styled Japanese ambient music of the same period, Quiet Music arose via a commission, in this case the Healing Arts community that was forming in LA during that period. As such provenance would suggest and given it's somewhat free of the commercial motives driving some of its Japanese peers, this highly earnest - serious even - music guided by clear utopic principles. Namely, how can music improve the human experience, much like the precepts of yoga and meditation for which it was made. It's not dissimilar to Eno's Discreet Music (i mean, those titles are interchangeable), though this is an airier, lighter affair, not to mention considerably larger in scope - there is a lot of music here. Volume 3 was actually written for Roach's own purposes, and perhaps reveals a little more of the artist as a result, as it's certainly a lot closer to his Structures from Silence record in 1984. This is about as introspective and meditative as music can get without disappearing into nothingness. It holds its form, retains its intent. Perfect escapist soundtracks for helping say no to the desperate outside world.