''Western Spaces'' is a collaborative album by the American ambient musicians Steve Roach and Kevin Braheny. This album is the first of Steve Roach’s many musical tributes to the Southwestern Desert. On several tracks Kevin Braheny uses his trademark sound created by playing a cello preset on his Steiner EWI (Electronic Woodwind Instrument). This album was originally released on the Innovative Communications label by Chameleon Records as a Steve Roach/Kevin Braheny/ Richard Burmer album and was released later the same year on the Fortuna label as a Steve Roach/Kevin Braheny album, with Burmer's solo contributions (“A Story from the Rain” and “Across the View”) replaced by two pieces from Roach. The liner notes contain a poem by Roach's wife

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 ...

from which many of the song titles and perhaps the album title were derived.

Track listings

Innovative Communications (Chameleon Records)

#”The Breathing Stone” (Roach) (6:46) #”Desert Walkabout” (Braheny) (7:03) #”A Story from the Rain” (Burmer) (7:08) #”Desert Prayer” (Roach, Braheny) (12:33) #”Across the View” (Burmer) (4:40) #”In the Heat of Venus” (Roach, Brennan) (22:42) #”Western Spaces” (Roach, Braheny, Burmer) (6:07)

Fortuna

#"The Breathing Stone" (Roach) (6:46) #"Desert Walkabout" (Braheny) (7:03) #"New Moon at Forbidden Mesa" (Roach, Brennan) (5:40) #"Desert Prayer" (Roach, Braheny) (12:33) #"In the Heat of Venus" (Roach, Brennan) (22:33) #"The Slow Turning" (Roach) (7:40) #"Western Spaces" (Roach, Braheny, Burmer) (6:07)

Personnel

* Steve Roach (

Oberheim Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim. History and products Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most ...

System with digital drums and Xpander,

EMU The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The emu ...

I, Arp,

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. I ...

, Emulator II, Ensoniq ESQ-I) * Kevin Braheny (Steiner EWI,

The Mighty Serge The Serge synthesizer ( Serge Modular or Serge Modular Music System) is an analogue modular synthesizer system originally developed by Serge Tcherepnin, Rich Gold and Randy Cohen at CalArts in late 1972. The first 20 Serge systems (then called " ...

Modular, Oberheim,

Ensoniq ESQ-1 Ensoniq ESQ-1 is a 61-key, velocity sensitive, eight-note polyphonic and multitimbral synthesizer released by Ensoniq in 1985. It was marketed as a "digital wave synthesizer" but was an early Music Workstation. Although its voice generation is ...

piano,

panpipes A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...

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 p ...

, bells) *

Thom Brennan Thom Brennan (born May 31, 1957 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American electronic ambient musician, composer and synthesist. Active since the 1980s with his first album ''Mountains'' (1987), he belongs to the scene of Californian pioneers of electr ...

(Oberheim Matrix 12 on “New Moon at Forbidden Mesa” and “In the Heat of Venus”) * Richard Burmer (Emulator II on “Western Spaces”)

References

{{Authority control 1987 collaborative albums Steve Roach (musician) albums