Dreamtime Return is a double album, based on Australian Aboriginal culture and the concept of the Dreamtime, by the American ambient

Ambient music

Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...

 musician Steve Roach. Roach had already began composing this album when by chance he received a letter from writer/photographer David Stahl. Stahl had heard Steve Roach’s third album, Structures from Silence

Structures from Silence

Structures from Silence is the third album by the American ambient musician Steve Roach. This is his first purely textural album, with a smooth, dark, gentle atmosphere unlike any of his other albums....

, on the radio while driving through the desert towards Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. He informed Steve Roach of his current documentary film project Art of the Dreamtime. Several months later Roach and Stahl traveled to Northern Australia to visit that region's ancient Aboriginal sites.

Overview

This album is Steve Roach’s first true tribal album, as well as being the first of his many double album projects. The music consists of slow haunting electronic textures, sometimes featuring various ethnic percussion instruments and traditional Aboriginal chants and voices. The track “Truth in Passing” features atmospheric piano work rare in Steve Roach’s music.

The earliest recorded track on the album is “The Other Side”. This piece was recorded live, with Kevin Braheny playing a Steiner EWI

EWI

EWI is the name of AKAI's wind controller, an electronic musical instrument invented by Nyle Steiner. The early models consisted of two parts: a wind controller and a synthesizer. The current model, EWI4000S, combines the two parts into one, placing the synthesizer in the lower section of the...

 (Electronic Woodwind Instrument). This piece was broadcast on the National Public Radio program Music from the Hearts of Space in 1986. This particular edition of the program, titled Starflight 1, was so popular that later that year it was released as an album, consequently “The Other Side” was released two years before the rest of Dreamtime Return.

After this album was released, Steve Roach embarked on a second trip to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Track listing

All tracks by Steve Roach except where noted

Disc one

1. ”Towards the Dream” – 7:08
2. ”The Continent” – 4:49
3. ”Songline” (Robert Rich, Roach) – 3:10)
4. ”Airtribe Meets the Dream Ghost” (Rich, Roach) – 7:00
5. ”A Circular Ceremony” – 11:18
6. ”The Other Side” (Kevin Braheny, Roach) – 13:14
7. ”Magnificent Gallery” – 6:07
8. ”Truth in Passing” – 8:41
9. ”Australian Dawn-The Quiet Earth Cries Inside” – 6:18

Disc two

1. ”Looking for Safety” – 31:21
2. ”Through a Strong Eye” – 6:50
3. ”The Ancient Day” – 6:06
4. ”Red Twilight with the Old Ones” – 9:48
5. ”The Return” – 8:33

1988 Fortuna Records 2-LP release

The 1988 2-LP release lacks the songs "Truth in Passing" and "Through a Strong Eye." It also has shorter edits of several other pieces, including a version of "Looking for Safety" that is 20 minutes shorter than the CD version.

Side 1

1. ”Towards the Dream” – 7:08
2. ”The Continent” – 4:48
3. ”Songline” – 3:11
4. ”Airtribe Meets the Dream Ghost” – 6:59

Side 3

1. ”Magnificent Gallery” – 5:03
2. ”Australian Dawn-The Quiet Earth Cries Inside” – 5:11
3. ”Looking for Safety” – 10:03

Side 4

1. ”The Ancient Day” – 6:06
2. ”Red Twilight with the Old Ones” – 9:48
3. ”The Return” – 8:33

Personnel

• Steve Roach – analog and digital synthesizer
  Synthesizer
  A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
  
  s, sequencers
  Music sequencer
  The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...
  
  , sampler
  Sampler (musical instrument)
  A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
  
  , Macintosh with “M”, digital drums, Taos drum, sticks
• Kevin Braheny – Steiner EWI
• David Hudson – didjeridu
• Chuck Oken, Jr – rainstick
• Robert Rich
  Robert Rich (musician)
  Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he is widely regarded as a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient, New Age, and even IDM music.-Early life:At an early age he thought he disliked music...
  
   – gourd drum, dumbek

See also

• Steve Roach
• Kevin Braheny
• Robert Rich
  Robert Rich (musician)
  Robert Rich is an ambient musician and composer based in California, United States. With a discography spanning over 30 years, he is widely regarded as a figure whose sound has greatly influenced today's ambient, New Age, and even IDM music.-Early life:At an early age he thought he disliked music...
  
  
• David Hudson
• Ambient music
  Ambient music
  Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
  
  
• Electronic music
  Electronic music
  Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
  
  
• Australian Aborigine
• Dreamtime (mythology)