Release data:

Steve Roach & Brian Parnham – The Desert Inbetween
CD, Projekt Records, 2011

Both Steve Roach and Brian Parnham are known for years as purveyors of the sound of deserts and expansive, remote places. As the press sheet explains, the album draws inspiration from the stark and magnificent expanses of the desert southwest.

While expressing a longing for a state of beautiful isolation, the project explores the outer edges of solitude: psychological states accessed when the imagination is cut free from daily concerns and permitted to focus on the essentials.

The hybrid electro-acoustic soundworld “The Desert Inbetween” is the culmination of their efforts, a 67-minute strong organic soundscape with searing textural tapestries, assorted tribal/ethnic rhythms and elements, delivered in seven tracks.
It also sees the return of Steve’s soft yearning e-guitar on certain spots, something I personally never been too fond of as he started using it on e.g. “Midnight Moon”, and some hybrid grooves (e.g. the dynamic “Serpent Gulch”) while Brian adds bits of didgeridoo from his side.

The immense vastness, imaginary vistas and bare silence shimmer through the veins of this album. Keep in mind it’s not that quiet, as groovy undercurrents and assorted percussion from time to time lend it an active “vibe”.
In my opinion, the deep atmospheric, the hypnotic and the immersive best surface on the 17-minute “Return to the Underground”.

“The Desert Inbetween” is recommended for those who care for an assemblage of highly-altered organic sounds and instruments, travellers to worlds once alien and familiar, next to Roach’s tribal-infused “Origins”-period and the two Suspended Memories projects.

You can see what reviews I have done of these artists on the Steve Roach, Brian Parnham artist pages