''Soma'' (1992, sometimes spelled ''SoMa'') was the second collaborative album by the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

ians Steve Roach and Robert Rich, following their 1990 album ''

Strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

''.

Overview

The liner notes explain that the word ''

soma Soma may refer to: Businesses and brands * SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects * Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems * SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...

'' can be found in the ancient

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

texts describing a drink made from plants to help commune with the gods (a botanical

hallucinogen Hallucinogens are a large, diverse class of psychoactive drugs that can produce altered states of consciousness characterized by major alterations in thought, mood, and perception as well as other changes. Most hallucinogens can be categorized ...

), and that the same word meant "body" in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

.Source: Roach & Rich, "CD liner notes" The music on the album is

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

and

with psychedelic overtones. The album ends with a gentle, serene piece for electric guitar titled "Touch". The album reached number nine on the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

New Age chart for April 17, 1993.

Track listing

# "Love Magick" – 7:40 # "Nightshade" – 9:07 # "Going Inland" – 4:05 # "Silk Ridge" – 6:05 # "Blood Music" – 8:10 # "Soma" – 12:07 # "Seduction of the Minotaur" – 5:21 # "Touch" – 4:36 All compositions by Steve Roach and Robert Rich.

Personnel

;Musical * Steve Roach –

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, samplers, drum programming,

didgeridu The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

, voice, clay water pots,

rainstick A rainstick is a long, hollow tube partially filled with small pebbles, rice or beans that has small pins or thorns arranged helically on its inside surface. When the stick is upended, the pebbles fall to the other end of the tube, bouncing o ...

, rocks, various

percussions A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excl ...

, Lakota Indian flute,

ocarina The ocarina is a wind musical instrument; it is a type of vessel flute. Variations exist, but a typical ocarina is an enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouthpiece that projects from the body. It is traditionally made from c ...

s, "glurp" * Robert Rich –

, samplers, bamboo and clay flutes,

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

, drum programming,

Udu The udu is a plosive aerophone (in this case implosive) and an idiophone of the Igbo people, Igbo of Nigeria. In the Igbo language, ''ùdù'' means 'vessel'. Actually being a water jug with an additional hole, it was played by Igbo women for ce ...

clay drums,

dumbek The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet- ...

, ceramic talking drum,

Waterphone A waterphone (also ocean harp) is a type of inharmonic acoustic tuned idiophone consisting of a stainless steel resonator ''bowl'' or ''pan'' with a cylindrical ''neck'' and bronze rods of different lengths and diameters around the rim of the bowl ...

kalimba Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and pl ...

, various

, "glurp" : ''with'' *

Linda Kohanov Linda Kohanov is an author, speaker, riding instructor, and horse trainer. Kohanov is best known in the field called "equine facilitated psychotherapy" (closely related to therapeutic horseback riding), and as the author of five books, ''The Tao ...

– frame drum "cries, swirls and scratches" (on tracks 6 and 7) ;Technical * Production, recording, mixing: Steve Roach, Robert Rich * Mastering: Stephen Hill, Robert Rich ;Graphical * Design, image editing, montage: Stephen Hill * Cover: photochemical etching by Wernher Krutein (of Photovault, San Francisco) * Artist photo: Chuck Koesters

References

Sources

* Roach, Steve & Rich, Robert (1992). "CD liner notes" in ''Soma'', San Francisco:

Hearts of Space Records Hearts of Space Records is a record label owned by Valley Entertainment. The label represents several sublabels, including Hearts of Space, Hearts O'Space, Fathom, RGB, and World Class. History Hearts of Space Records was founded in 1984 as an ...

, 1992,

SKU In inventory management, a stock keeping unit (abbreviated as SKU and pronounced or ) is the unit of measure in which the stocks of a material are managed. Or to put it another way; is a distinct type of item for sale, purchased, or tracked in ...

HS11033-2,

EAN Ean may refer to: People * Ean Campbell (1856–1921), Anglican bishop in the early 20th century * Ean Elliot Clevenger, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter * Ean Evans (1960–2009), bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd from 2001 until his de ...

0025041103329 ( UPC 025041103329)

External links

''Soma''
at SteveRoach.com
''Soma''
at RobertRich.com

at Hearts of Space Records
''Soma''
at

Hearts of Space ''Hearts of Space'' is an American weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature"When you listen to space and ambient music you are connecting with a tradition of contemplative sound experience whose roots are an ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soma (Steve Roach and Robert Rich album) 1992 albums Robert Rich (musician) albums Steve Roach (musician) albums Hearts of Space Records albums Collaborative albums