Steve Roach (born February 16, 1955)[2] is an American composer and performer of
ambient and
electronic music, whose recordings are informed by his impressions of environment, perception, flow and
space. His work has been influential in the
trance and
new-age genres.[1]
Roach has received two
Grammy Award nominations for New Age Album of the Year: His 2017 album Spiral Revelation for the
60th Annual Grammy Awards.,[3] and 2018's Molecules of Motion for the
61st Annual Grammy Awards.[4] Roach's work has also been listed on "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die."[5]
Biography
Roach was born as a single child in
La Mesa, California, less than 10 miles from
San Diego. He developed a passion for
Motocross racing in the early 1970s, experiences from which he incorporated into his composing and performing later on. "You have to be fully awake and present ... All of those things relate right over to what would become my path in music. You're completely in; you're inside of it, your life depends on it. That set the tone."[6] Having grown up near deserts, mountains, and the ocean, these became key aesthetic influences in Roach's music.[6] Roach was greatly influenced by electronic music as a teenager, particularly Timewind (1975) by
Klaus Schulze and works by
Tangerine Dream and
Brian Eno. He was also influenced by
progressive rock, namely Close to the Edge (1972) by
Yes and Ummagumma (1969) by
Pink Floyd.[7]
Roach taught himself to play the synthesizer when he was 20; among his first instruments were a
Roland SH-3A and
Vox Continental. He went on to purchase a
Micromoog,
ARP 2600, and
ARP String Ensemble at once with a "super high interest loan".[1][7] He lived in Hollywood, California for a brief time, during which he worked at the Licorice Pizza record store alongside future The Simpsons creator
Matt Groening, and became a part of the electronic music community in the Los Angeles area.[7][6] He moved to a bungalow in
Culver City, in which he built a recording studio named the Timeroom and worked odd jobs while creating music.[6][7]
His debut album, Now, was released in 1982. Two years later, he released his best known album, Structures from Silence (1984). He had pressed a run of cassettes of the album, which caught the attention of
Stephen Hill who played it on his Hearts of Space radio show on
KCRW, which generated further interest in Roach's music.[6] In 1986 he released his acclaimed Quiet Music series. In 1988, he released what has been described by critics as his masterpiece, the double-album Dreamtime Return.[1]
In 1995, Roach signed with
Projekt Records, which has since been his primary label.[6]
As Roach's approach to ambient music has matured, his compositions have typically[8] been
beatless. His rhythmic and
trance-based groove and tribal-ambient releases, however, are nearly as numerous[8] as his more atmospheric releases. Some recordings are strictly synthesizer-based, whereas others include ambient
guitar experiments.
Other pieces, however, cross over with more ethnic and folk influences. Roach learned to play the
digeridoo during his extended trips to
Australia in the 1980s, and he became an early proponent[9] of its use in ambient music. His work with Mexican musician
Jorge Reyes introduced Roach to
Prehispanic musical elements, which he has also included in his music. These fusions established Roach as one of the founders[8] of the tribal-ambient sound.