The Leaving Time_音乐专辑
The Leaving Time
表演者: Michael Shrieve/Steve Roach
专辑类型: Album
介质: CD
发行时间: February 06, 1989
唱片数: 1
出版者: RCA
条形码: 0012416303224
专辑简介
Brilliant prog-soundtrack project
This lost album appeared in the same year (1988) as Steve Roach's landmark Dreamtime Return, which should be enough to pique the interest of anyone familiar with that ambient masterpiece. Here, he joins Santana drummer Michael Shrieve and guitarist David Torn in a virtual progressive dream band.
The set is beautifully produced by Shrieve and Roach. The music, aptly described elsewhere as progressive and cinematic, takes us on a journey (like any Roach album) into the unknown - or the merely forgotten, paralleling Roach's watershed Australia trip.
The title track grabs our focus with an insistent repeated synth chord, chime-like fills and signature Roach washes. Torn's sinuous, shape-shifting guitar evokes the unknown adventures beckoning us. March of Honor's fife-and-drum intro sends us on our way in high spirits, and the piece's expansive ending opens our "sense of possibilities".
The heat of San Diego pulses between somnolence and impulsive action, as the city awakes to roar through another day. As the electric piano intro unfolds, clackety xylophone-like parts underscore the urgency behind the gradual crescendo of drums. A classic space opening with guitar harmonics begins Theme For the Far Away. Roach dominates this piece with another exhilarating progression, propelled by Shrieve's fine work on muted toms.
Nimble drumming is a highlight of Tribes, as new worlds continue to open up all around us. Bassist Jonas Hellborg contributes a crisp, funky part. Torn's solo breaking on a stubbornly-repeated note is a standout. On Big Sky, Roach carves out a living desert vista, with an nicely-panning sequencer/synth opening. This classic western soundtrack takes its time developing, with Torn's slowly-breathing guitar and Shrieve's tablas adding texture and power to the sequence.
Shrieve moves to the foreground on Edge Runner, racing from the hihats-and-claves intro into an outstanding, syncopated beat with great ride cymbal work. Roach rises with a flying sequencer/synth interlude as the percussion underlayer keeps churning, and Torn adds a lovely melodic guitar duet over another snappy bass part from Hellborg. Life on the edge, indeed. The album closes with a quick reprise of The Leaving Time's opening chord, closing the cycle. As one part of our journey ends, another begins - impelled by Time's relentless march.
Shrieve's drumming throughout is brilliantly economical, evocative and never obvious. Torn's guitar work at times recalls the 80's incarnation of King Crimson: unmistakably unique and insanely unpredictable.
This album, with its prog-soundtrack aura and being Roach's only project involving a kit drummer, holds a unique place in his expansive catalog. It's a collaboration as singular as Dust to Dust with Roger King, 10 years later.
The album was originally issued by RCA/Novus, but is long out of print. There's no info on the website of RCA's parent company BMG. A few copies are available through various Amazon.com vendors. Your small investment will be very richly rewarded.
曲目
1. Leaving Time
2. March of Honor
3. San Diego
4. Theme for the Far Away
5. Tribes
6. Big Sky
7. Edge Runner
8. Leaving Time (Reprise)
