Dreamtime Return

Hear the chants, mezmorizing rythems, and dare to remember what we really are. Go to places our elders knew of but feared what
might result. Thank you Steve and may we all meet in the Dreamtime.

The soundscapes Steve Roach creates on Dreamtime Return are out of this world. They'll grab you instantly and by the time this double-disc set comes to an end you'll be amazed and stunned by it. This is Roach in his finest hour and it's definitely the finest hour of ambient music. This is a must have for every ambient music fan.

...

As the concept of "fourth world" music was inaugurated by Jon Hassell and indigenous music was embraced by the record industry, Steve Roach was visiting Australia and gathering together the sonic food he needed to cook up this incomparable recording. With this double disc set (containing over two hours of music), Roach reached a plateau both in his musical evolution and within the genre that has yet to be eclipsed. Reveling in a near-seamless blend of organic and electronic sound worlds, Roach constructs a number of mini-epics that sonically reflect the Aborigine mystique, filtered through a collage of didjeridus, incongruous samples from the deep outback, and all other manners of unidentifiable electronic textures. Cloaked in the infinite tempest of ancient ritual, tracks such as "A Circular Ceremony" and "The Other Side" suggest not just primordial riddles or sacred ceremonial rites, but rather touch on emotions that resonate across all cultural and ethnographic boundaries. Atmospheres suggest uncategorizable flora and fauna developing their own febrile environments. Grooves percolate from hand-struck drums that are in turn programmed into multi-sequenced events, while samples of mysterious origin sparkle and flare out of vast, twilight regions. Undoubtedly, Roach's first true masterpiece.