Reflections In Repose is a recent two-CD/116-minute album from US ambient master/ pioneer Steve Roach. It features five long-form tracks- which sees him stripping down his sound using just a single instrument — the Oberheim OB-X8 — the modern equivalent of the iconic Oberheim OB-8, which he used 40 years ago to make his classic 1984 album Structures From Silence.

The physical release comes presented in an eight-panel digipak. This takes in a moody black-and-white picture of Mr Roach on the front cover, and water-like textures/ visuals inside. As with all of his main releases over the years this double CD set appears on the Projekt label.

All of the tracks featured here are of the beat-less, stripped back, and drifting ambient variety- been built around tonally ebbs and drones. Each has runtimes between fifteen & nearly thirty minutes.

The first CD takes in three tracks- "Watercourse", the title track & "The Splendour Within". The first track is all about swelling and then drifting tones- these feel somewhere between lightly warm & greyly nostalgic, with both peacefulness & slight forlornness in their make-up. The title track is not only the longest track here (29.46)- but for me the highlight/ centrepiece of the whole album. It finds Roach placing out these selections of slowly swirling & drifting tones, which hint at both hope/ warmth & darkness/ shadow. I’m not sure how he’s done it, but it literally feels like he’s creating an almost 3D picture with sound. The picture I’m getting is of a huge monolithic object- which is half submerged in dark deep blue water, and half open to the air & sun- with the track Roach takes us slowly around the mass- moving from the light and brightly glinting, to the shader and cool, though to the murky & dark. The track really is a feat to behold, and each time I play it- I’m once again enchanted, if at points subtle unsettled by the track.  The third track/ final track on this disc- brings together hovering lows & mids, with graceful sweeps/ ebbs- with the whole thing having a rather cathedral-like quality to its lightly reverbing tones.

Moving onto the second disc, we have two tracks "Hear Now" & "This Is Why"  The first track is all about more rapidly sailing 'n' shifting drones- it feels like you are travelling along on the wing of a plane- as distant landscapes unfold below you- moving between the sun lite & cloud shaded. This is most certainly the most urgent/ shifting of the tracks on the album. The second track once again has a feeling of more rapid pull ‘n’ ebb to it- though it’s not up to the level of the first track - once more having rather forlorn/ troubled air- as the lightly tumbling bass tones meet more rising mids & highs.

 Reflections In Repose finds Roach striping back & narrowing his ambient craft. At its most engaging/ successful- he manages to create very keen/well-defined sonic pictures.