SoMa, by Steve Roach & Robert Rich

SoMa

by Steve Roach & Robert Rich

supported by

Frank Inzan Owen (Hidden Mountain) thumbnail

Frank Inzan Owen (Hidden Mountain) Go with the deep drift.

A classic collaboration. Wish they would do another. Favorite track: Nightshade.

Awaelitra A week rarely goes by when I don't listen to this timeless masterpiece. Streams of silky smooth textures and pulsating deep-bass tribal rhythms aid in realizing this journey inward. I highly recommend this one.

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

Brand new and sealed CD!

Includes unlimited streaming of SoMa via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

$14.99 USD or more

1.	Love Magick 07:40	buy track
2.	Nightshade 09:07	buy track
3.	Going Inland 04:02	buy track
4.	Silk Ridge 06:08	buy track
5.	Blood Music 07:55	buy track
6.	SoMa 12:22	buy track
7.	Seduction of the Minotaur 05:24	buy track
8.	Touch 04:36	buy track

about

Hallucinogenic master work from the Roach - Rich team. The evolution of "somadelic" music continues at a high level. It's all here, tribal grooves, organic sound-worlds, rich harmonic formations and breathy melodic flutes blend effortlessly.
------------------------------------
The mystic Soma-plant symbolizes that element behind all sense-activities and their enjoyments which yields the divine essence." SoMA, the album celebrates creative activity, "...the principle of bliss...Oh sing a song, a song of praise to the clear and swiftly flowing Drop of crystal with a thousand eyes -Rig Veda IX.60.1, Hymn of Purification

The word soma appears over 3000 years ago in the Indian Vedic scriptures as the divine nectara drug/food with powerful physical, mental, and spiritual properties. According to one commentator, Soma is "...the principle of bliss...the essence, in sense-objects and sense-experiences, in the plants and growths of the earth-nature. The mystic Soma-plant symbolizes that element behind all sense-activities and their enjoyments which yields the divine essence." For the classical Greeks, soma meant 'body' and is the root of English words like somatic. (Soma also appeared infamously in Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World as the quasi-narcotic pleasure drug which kept the masses quiescent.)

"We wanted this music to feel primordial, not technological," says Robert Rich, "...to stimulate the body as means of joining the physical, mental, and spiritual in a journey of almost psychedelic intensity."

By turns earthy, danceable, sensuous, erotic, psychoactive, and mystical, SoMA's heady brew of organic percussion instruments, pulsing heartbeat rhythms, airy ethnic flutes, keening slide guitars, and dense synthesized ambiences might well be labeled "Terratronic." With SoMA, Steve Roach and Robert Rich have taken another powerful step on the road to reinventing contemporary music as a shamanic practice.

2-HOS-11033

credits

released August 20, 1990

Produced by Robert Rich and Steve Roach
Composed, performed and recorded by Steve Roach and
Robert Rich at The Timeroom, Tucson, AZ, and Soundscape Studio,
Mountain View, CA. Analog + midi recording, mixed to DAT at the Timeroan.
All music Copyright © 1992 Soundquest Music/BMI and Amoeba Muse SML
Mastered by Stephen Hill & Robert Rich at Hearts of Space Studio, San Francisco

license

about

Hearts of Space Records New York, New York

Hearts of Space Records | A Valley Entertainment Label

Launched in 1984, this record label was created as an extension of the weekly syndicated radio show Hearts of Space. Centered around contemplative music, the label features music from the ambient, new age, electronic, world, Celtic, classical, and experimental genres. ... more

contact / help

Contact Hearts of Space Records

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like SoMa, you may also like:

Offering to the Morning Fog
by Robert Rich

supported by 25 fans who also own “SoMa”

Right from the first sound you hear, to the last note - this album will transport you to a natural place. I cannot put into words how this album has been such a huge help. It’s like a friend now - like someone who is always there. An amazing album that everyone should own. Thanks so much, Robert. darkstarr666
go to album
Mystic Chords and Sacred Spaces - Complete Edition
by Steve Roach

supported by 20 fans who also own “SoMa”

Absolutely indispensable. A very extense album with brilliants soundscapes. A lonely journey through solitary lands. To hard to try only one track. The last long song is absolutely awesome. Immortal album. raulmori
go to album
Structures From Silence (30th Anniversary 3CD Remastered Edition)
by Steve Roach

supported by 19 fans who also own “SoMa”

wonderful mysterious ambient track ernstlat
go to album
With & Without
by arushi jain

Hindustani music and glitchy ambient co-mingle on the San Francisco-based, New Delhi-raised composer’s lush new album. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 4, 2019
go to album
Parted Plains
by Ami Dang

On her new LP, Ami Dang blends sitar and electronics to create worlds that are dreamy and disturbing. Bandcamp Album of the Day Aug 1, 2019
go to album
Palisades EP
by Austin Cash

Arkansas' Austin Cash soundtracks the documentary The Palisades Project with these thoughtful, delicate ambient Americana pieces. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 1, 2022
go to album
Fever Dreams II
by Steve Roach

supported by 17 fans who also own “SoMa”

Can't emphasize enough how good this series is. Steve released the classic Structures from Silence in 1985 and his command and control over his material has gotten continually better. Just listen. Chris Fox
go to album