STEVE ROACH The Desert Collection: Volume One CD Digipack 2014

The Desert Collection: Volume One

CD Digipack

Created by Steve Roach at his Timeroom Studios throughout the Southwest across three decades.

The Desert Experience
Steve writes, “This release started as a collection of desert-themed tracks sequenced for summer road trips between Arizona and California. Sometimes the trip is in dark of night, cloaked from the heat; while other trips are in the broad searing rays of the summer sun. Drawing from over thee decades of desert music, this magical blend creates a set that places one directly into the dramatic and emotive, immersive southwest landscapes.”

The Land Of Extremes
Steve writes, “My daily life, and creative motivations are constantly infused with the relationship that has evolved for me within this land of extremes. The expansive beauty, harsh and dramatic, still and quiet, it’s all here. While much of my music is not directly about the desert, the constant influence of this land that is my spiritual home is the calibration tone I set my life to. It continues to burn away the insignificant and illuminate – with a perfect light – what matters.”

The Desert Collection
Steve writes, “Since before I was making music, I was making mix tapes (first on 8 track and then cassettes) of road music for drives through the SoCal desert and mountain backroads. The music soundtrack to these drives would somehow play to where the dynamic pieces would time out with dramatic shifts in the landscapes, most always by chance and always making the moment larger than ordinary life. I love the freedom of driving — alone in the Southwest with music. It unfurls the knotted mind and cleanses the palate for new creative thoughts to emerge over the drone of the engine mixed with a well-crafted set of music. It seems to propel the car towards the horizon as the sun sets, or rises. Countless albums have been evaluated, mapped out and road tested upon thousands upon thousands of miles over the years. It’s true to say this mix tape was 30 years in the making.

“When I hit play on this soundtrack on the way out of Gila Bend heading west recently, thermometer at 105, an hour before sunset, the sky was bleeding orange and red. The first track on The Desert Collection emerged and so did the chills and wet eyes as I was feeling those non-motorized western travelers from not so long ago — like me — looking to ‘go west…’ On board the ‘Ghost Train,’ indeed.”

The cover: Elephant Head Dreaming
The images, taken by Steve’s wife Linda Kohanov, are about 10 minutes from the where a portion of the Timeroom sits. Often Steve and Linda hike out to this area to take in the sunset, its close to home yet eons away from the things we take for granted every day. The massive rock guardian – Elephant Head – is the archetype of the Cathedral in its pure and essential form. A stone Ganesh of multi-symbolic radiance. The afternoon light upon this icon is always a marvelous spectacle.

Release Date: July 22 2014