Possible Planet by Steve Roach

The exploration of a brave new analog based electro organic started for me in the late 90s with the Deopfer and Analogue modular systems. By 2005 when the Eurorack modular tsunami was just starting to build dramatically, Possible Planet was created as this wave was rising and remains a piece I return to for the pure visceral yet meditative zone it creates.

I was listening to this Possible Planet after finding several boxes of the last batch of CD's on hand and wanted to shine a light on it for those who might have missed this one. I feel like I could have created this yesterday and that's one the beauties of this approach with modular based creations.

With the 2024 world of modular synthesis now at the level of a household word, at least in the global music community, we can order modules for the system and have them the next day and be carving. Exciting times indeed as these tools for sound and innerpersonal explorations are changing our world of the sound arts. I am featuring Possible Planet in the new light of today and in the spirit of how many sound artists are working to create inspired and moving results. No MIDI keyboards of any kind, and computers for composition and editing in the moment of now.

This 2005 long-form analog modular only soundworld work pulls back the layers of perception and increases the magnification to reveal a truly organic, analog-based core soundworld. The metaphor of emerging lifeforms on a possible planet sets the mood for the three movements presented as a continuous immersive zone. "Wet", "shimmering", "cellular" and "diaphanous" are some words that could describe this living & breathing soundscape.

The Process... I have always had a visceral connection to the instruments I choose as the main creative tools. Possible Planet is the result of an analog rebirth that started for me in the Fall of 2004. A series of events created an obsession in my imagination and within my ears to hear and create from pure analog sources and a connection to my early days on the Arp 2600. Growing restless with digital synths, frozen waveforms and romplers, I wanted to feel the current coming right out of the wall and shape it from that point forward.

Possible Planet was created completely on a modular analog system which I assembled over a five-month period. As the sonic life forms were evolving, the system that I was creating was evolving as well. In order for the changes to occur, a new module would arrive that day and by that night it was absorbed into the system. This was also a great metaphor for the themes of the emerging cellular life forms I was dreaming into. In order to remove the reliable and familiar modes of working, I eliminated a few basics: no MIDI, keyboards of any kind It was all about twisting knobs, feeling it in my fingertips and coaxing the current into the desired direction. Possible Planet was recorded during three live sessions. Each session would start after several days of creating and learning the nuances of a 'living' patch I had created, from which the soundforms were drawn.

As a pioneering cornerstone of progressive ambient-electronic music, internationally-renowned artist Steve Roach has dedicated five decades to exploring myriad soundworlds that connect with a timeless source of inspiration.

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