by Jim Brenholts
Steve Roach has been a prolific composer and concert performer throughout his 20-year career. Before each concert, he tells himself, &All is now...now is all there is.& Thus, All Is Now is the title he chose for the double CD of his live performances from 2002. He chose to separate the release into two distinct sets. CD one, &All Is Now,& s his West Coast performances in San Francisco (two), Oakland, and Portland. (One of the San Francisco performances was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to accompany the opening of Yoko Ono's art retrospective. Roach and Ono -- wow!) The disc travels seamlessly through Roach's sound worlds. He segued the pieces perfectly, like a film editor splicing a movie, to create a hybrid concert in and of itself. CD two, &Live in Sedona: Formation Creation in 8 Parts,& is absolutely vintage Roach. He performed two shows on May 3; both were to follow the same outline. At 20 minutes into the second set, he tapped into the rock formations via an underground conduit and went on straight improve mode. The disc is of that concert and it is some of the most unique music he has ever created. It rides the edge -- hard. It is brilliant music from this quintessential musician.