as Amongst Myselves, Steve Roberts demonstrates his natural ability in spacemusic. Rather than
coerce his synths, Roberts communes with them and composes soft labyrinthine soundscapes of
well designed detail. The arrangement of Still Life obviously began somewhere outside of the
music studio where Roberts carefully plotted the placement and delivery of each sound. Once
inside, he used the studio as a compositional tool, realizing nine ambient tracks which resonate in
each of us differently. This is not an album that acts through repetition, not the edited highlights of
an extended process. Still Life is a very personal conception, dutifully crafted and produced. The
intricate windings are contoured with the unpredictability of a dream, making the album
contemplative, yet bewildering. This music is an immersive experience and locates the listener in a
different space from where they began.
An album in the truest sense of
the word, Still Life is a scrapbook of sounds containing a range of
shapes and moods. A perfumed nightmare, an uninhabited theme, the cool
of blue - with each
listen this album adds another shade to the emotional palette. Due to
its indistinction of form, the
album must be described in relation to its tension and release - compression
and expansion. When
compared to a gallery walk, this album becomes a collection of sonic vignettes
ranging from the
serene to the brash, the muddled to the crystalline, from calm to stormy
and ultimately more
interesting with each visit. This Still Life is one created in impressionistic
style, the true sonic
representation of something remembered.
- Chuck van Zyl/STAR'S END 16 August 2001
