Ritual Ground

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Originally released in 1993, this intriguing collaboration between Southwest ambient pioneer Steve Roach and veteran German electronic musician Elmar Schulte takes listeners on a journey through their subconscious. The elements for introspective exploration are all provided, most notably the deep-breathing synths and somniferous percussion loops which have become a Roach staple throughout his prolific career. Ritual Ground creates a hypnotic effect as the album opens with the mysterious yet gentle "Black Cloud" and gradually descends into deeper terrain. In some ways, the result is akin to an aural simulation of dream states. The most eerie moment occurs when a muted wail cuts through the simmering ether of "Rapt inDarkness," while the most distinct track is "Solid Ground," which recalls the surreal Fourth World compositions of Jon Hassell. Unlike many deep-listening albums, Ritual Ground is a circular journey that ventures back out of its dark regions with an airy and uplifting final track that feels like a refreshing morning after an intense night. --Bryan Reesman

Ritual Ground,Solitaire,Projekt Records,Ambient,New Age,Pop,Progressive Electronic,Rock,Techno-Tribal

Ritual Ground

Ritual Ground

Solitaire: Ritual Ground
Average customer rating:
Solitaire: Ritual Ground
Steve Roach , and Elmar Schulte
Manufacturer: Projekt
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000LF4DMK

Product Description

Recorded in Germany, October 1992; 7 tracks

Average customer rating:

Hybrid Vigor
Transcendant Visionary Music: beyond the beyond
Trance inducing, hallucinogenic!

Fool... Bazantar/Sitar
Mark Deutsch
Manufacturer: Artist One-Stop
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000023MC9
Release Date: 1999-05-10

Tracks:

Prelude - Iacta Alea Est, Orchid's Womb
First Movement - The Painted Bird
Second Movement - Persival
Third Movement - The Sword of Damocles
Fourth Movement - Kundalini Rising
Fifth Movement - Avodah
Postlude - Chrysanthemums & Orchids
Postlude - Lunatic Fringe

Album Description

Virtuoso musician, inventor, and visionary, Mark Deutsch releases an extraordinary new CD that debuts his epic composition, Fool, and features his revolutionary new instrument, the Bazantar, for which he has received a U.S. patent.

The Bazantar is a 38-stringed instrument, possessing 29 sympathetic, 4 drone, and 5 melody strings. Its engineering concept radically advances preexisting "sympathetic instrument" configurations. Robert Wilucki, a luthier who worked on the instrument, remarks, "It is genius what Mark has done with his invention--totally unique." The Bazantar's sound is multilayered and extraordinarily resonant. These characteristics, combined with Deutsch's unique style and prodigious technique, create the perception of several instruments being played simultaneously.

Fool..., the first recording to showcase the Bazantar, also employs the sitar and various percussion instruments. As a composer, Mark Deutsch has integrated many diverse elements into this work. He weaves Indian music's sublime melodic contouring with the panoramic architecture of classical music, universal mathematical principles with a jazz musician's commitment to spontaneous creation, and avant-garde's visceral convulsions with folk tradition's graceful simplicity to create a musical gestalt that defies simplistic categorization.

The Bazantar and sitar tracks are live solo performances. There is no overdubbing, looping, or other studio effects on these tracks. Rarely attempted in today's environment of digital manipulation, this method of recording requires substantial skill by both engineer and musician. The result is a work that reveals the creative process with a vitality remarkable in character.

Customer Reviews:

Hybrid Vigor.......2002-03-30

I am fresh from a concert presentation of gryphon-like beast the bazantar. The versatility of this instrument, in Mr. Deutch's most able hands, is quite remarkable. This recording is superb in its ability to place one inside the music. From this recording, from the concert, one gets a sense of vast possibilities and expectations for this instrument.

Fool is a musical exploration of a life as a spiritual path, one version at any rate, a rather saturnine version. I look forward to Mr. Deutsch putting out further recordings so he can expand the mystical vision with some of the irreverence of which he is also capable. Mysticism demands deconstruction to transcend itself. Fool is also a lesson in musicality. Part of the joy of this music is that it feels both unique and connected. We love to place things in categories (we cannot not do this in fact) and while I sit with this I have both the Baudelairean sense of plunging into the abyss of the new yet resonance with and anchoring to many traditions and expressions. As I am writing this I notice the second movement is playing, titled Persival. It includes a golden-ratioed figure-eight-like symbol. Interesting conjunction. Pesrival means "through the middle" or living in the points of conjunction, Whitman's "both in and out of the game. The bazantar is itself a point of intersection.

Transcendant Visionary Music: beyond the beyond.......2000-01-07

This music is unique and certainly difficult to describe with words. But I'll give it a go: With his Bazantar, Mark masterfully creates sound and timbre that entwine the exquisite aural resonance with cryptic mystical conjurings, beckoning the mind to relax and open and explore a transcendant tapestry of emotive texture and visionary trance.

Trance inducing, hallucinogenic!.......1999-10-25

By the 4th movement I found myself far removed from my sense of self in the room. The space around me grew very large and intense. This music is very interesting and penetrating. The fact that this music is of solo performance it astounding to me!

Average customer rating:

Rare, Captivating, Back in Print!
It Come from A Forest of Ancient Light
A cure for what ails you

Ritual Ground
Solitaire
Manufacturer: Projekt Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

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Electronic | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

The Fires of the Borderlands
Secret Observatory
Avec Laudenum
All Our Ancestors
Autumn Continent

ASIN: B00004TWT6
Release Date: 2000-07-11

Tracks:

Black Cloud
Turning World
North Sky
Rapt In Darkness
Solid Ground
Runes
In The Forest Of Ancient Light

Amazon.com

Originally released in 1993, this intriguing collaboration between Southwest ambient pioneer Steve Roach and veteran German electronic musician Elmar Schulte takes listeners on a journey through their subconscious. The elements for introspective exploration are all provided, most notably the deep-breathing synths and somniferous percussion loops which have become a Roach staple throughout his prolific career. Ritual Ground creates a hypnotic effect as the album opens with the mysterious yet gentle "Black Cloud" and gradually descends into deeper terrain. In some ways, the result is akin to an aural simulation of dream states. The most eerie moment occurs when a muted wail cuts through the simmering ether of "Rapt inDarkness," while the most distinct track is "Solid Ground," which recalls the surreal Fourth World compositions of Jon Hassell. Unlike many deep-listening albums, Ritual Ground is a circular journey that ventures back out of its dark regions with an airy and uplifting final track that feels like a refreshing morning after an intense night. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews:

Rare, Captivating, Back in Print!.......2002-02-04

I have a new Roach favorite! The note said that this was the first time this album has been available for over nine years. And I must say that the cover is the most beautiful I've ever seen for a Steve Roach album, with its chocolate sundae appeal of a jutting rock and ancient inscriptions in the foreground of a canyon-like Martian background. "Solitaire: Ritual Ground" is a collaborative effort with fellow ambient artist Elmar Schulle, who performs with Roach on the didgeridoo, percussion, and assorted analog and digital synthesizers and drum programming. I was again able to use Steve Roach's ambient and electronic mastery as a modern anti-anxiety, anti-depressant and trance-inducing prescription.

For a while, "Quiet Music" was my top Roach favorite, but right from track One, "Black Cloud" (which is reminiscent of "Quiet Music") you are whooshed away with the characteristic, sonic combustion that make Roach and Schulle a wondrous team. "Turning World" on track two sounds exactly the same as "Dreamtime Return" and "Quiet Music" as if they were suddenly infused, syncopated and a little upbeat, and mellow waves of synthetic reverberance filling the back nicely. "North Sky" on track 3 is entirely original and entirely peaceful, floating and uplifting, but the waveform is entirely familiar, 7:25 long. I could not have imagined a better--dare I say it--sequel to "Dreamtime Return," better than Roach's "Origins" (1993) than at this point. Suddenly you are thrust back in time in "Rapt in Darkness" on track 4, with its haunting, deep overtones which contrast nicely with track 5, "Solid Ground." Pleasantly mellow percussion with a gentle, rolling oceanic sonic rush form a delicious mixture of two different worlds, ancient yet modern. "Runes" and "In the Forest of Ancient Light" on tracks 6 and 7 establish a deep and mysterious flashback to "Western Spaces," and again, "Dreamtime Return" that I won't spoil for you. But do not be mistaken. This a not a rehash of previous Roach albums, but an entirely new work, captivating and rare in its auditory appeal. "Solitaire: Solid Ground" is absolutely perfect for continuous, low-volume playback. I think they had this in mind during composure. Once again, Roach and his companions prove that he is the grandmaster of ambience.

It Come from A Forest of Ancient Light.......2000-12-20

This Cd worth buy not only for BLACK CLOUD,a good track used by MICHAEL MANN for his film HEAT,but also for IN THE FOREST OF ANCIENT LIGHT...absolutely stunning.Close your eyes and fly....

A cure for what ails you.......2000-09-02

This music will move you. This CD has something for whatever you mood you're in---or whatever mood you want to be in. I listen to it while I'm working, while trying to unwind, or when trying to balance myself for meditation, prayer or ritual. A powerful connection between sound and soul.

Average customer rating:

Ritual Ground
Solitaire
Manufacturer: Projekt
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ambient | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Electronic | Progressive | Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks: