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I played through The Swapper for PC. Really beautiful atmospheric puzzle game with great ambient music. Recommended to all.

Also playing Path of Exile, a free action RPG, by far the best one out there, very deep and complex. Of course, it's a hell of a grind. But the many ways you can customize your character is one of the things that make this game worthwhile. Everything is so much better done than in Diablo 3.

I never got the hype for Skyrim. It's a beautiful world, but otherwise I found it unengaging. Also the combat is just awful.

For another type of massive open world game, you could check out some Space Sims. The recent X Rebirth is getting bad reviews, but the upcoming crowd funded "Star Citizen" and "Elite: Dangerous" are very, very interesting (and very good looking) projects.

"Elite: Dangerous retains the basic premise of previous games - players start with a spaceship and a small amount of money and make their own way in an open galaxy. Players will choose how much they interact with others, from completely offline play to something approaching an MMO. The extensively procedurally generated universe is expected to be vast both in scope and detail, perhaps allowing players to fly down into a unique cloudscape for every planet of every size in a universe containing hundreds of billions stars"

Quote from: Immersion on December 19, 2013, 11:31:07 AM

I did listen to "Spiral Meditations" today, what can I say, it sounded very mediocre to me...
The sound quality is not good, no depth, everything is just average, no magic...

I am still convinced it sounds good in steves studio, but it is to me clear he have made dramatic changes in is signal path...all sounds so much cheaper now a lot of the later releases...sad to hear...

Sorry, guys, but to me, works such as "Back To Life", "Tales From The Ultra Tribe", "Soul Tones" or "Future Flows" are no short of Steve's many milestones mentioned in above posts. Maybe these works are not that catchy at the "first listen", but to me, each new deep listening session provides a truly immersing and rewarding listening experience. "Back To Life" is definitely an ultimate milestone, on "Tales From The Ultra Tribe" Steve & Byron have pushed the limits again, "Future Flows", "Nightbloom", "The Road Eternal" or "Sigh Of Ages" are all masterpieces. Haven't received "Spiral Meditations" CD yet, but I simply can't imagine no magic, no depth on it... I have read several reviews during the last few years sending Steve out of the desert to other parts of North America, to the Middle East and so on to search for new inspiration, but I will never agree with all these words. I still see Steve at the top of his creative craft always exploring new grounds, he was born to do this and he does it constantly!!!

Richard 

I agree, there's still a good overall quality in his output, not everyone will like everything, but I find at least two Steve Roach releases for each of the last years are very much worth it.

2013: Spiral Meditations (judging by the samples I'll probably love it), Live Transmission, (Live at Vortex Dome Immersion!)
2012: Soul Tones, Back to Life
2011: (Journey of One), The Road Eternal, The Desert Inbetween
2010: Sigh of Ages, Dream Tracker

If you ask me nothing of recent years comes even close to Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces. That's the standard he has to beat. If he can top that, it would raise the bar for the entire ambient genre. The real masterpieces come maybe once a decade. But there's still plenty of good stuff from 2003-2013. I absolutely love Dream Tracker for example, or Road Eternal. And Journey of One (yes from an older concert, but still...amazing). Arc of Passion, Soul Tones.

I got it just in time yesterday because the podcast is taken down now.

This is sad.

Inland is glorious. Great ambient music.

Btw, for the Namlook compilation you'd also expect something from Schulze...

Unforgiveable indeed. Who in their right mind would write a book called the Ambient Century without even knowing these artists..... that's like writing a book about 19th century piano music and not mentioning Chopin and Liszt........ Some of the other stuff that is covered can only be (very) remotely associated with ambient music.... I'll avoid anything by him like the plague.

Steve Roach - Soul Tones

As good as ever. Title track is marvelous. The exotic harmonies Steve Roach creates.... I could dwell inside them forever.

Quote from: drone on on January 14, 2013, 11:11:16 AM

Just purchased last night:

BLOOD BOX-Funeral in an Empty Room.  This is on the Power & Steel sublabel of Loki Foundation, Germany.  This is a SUPERB celestial darkambient release.  Don't let the cliched typical dark ambient title put you off;  highly recommend this one to all!

That is a superb album, and if you can find a copy of it, I would highly recommend his The Iron Dream also.

Yes, they are fantastic albums. There is great depth to the music of Blood Box, sometimes with very subtle, "subliminal" melodies. Just listen to the track "The Celestial Abyss" and notice how the harmonies and textures keep shifting all the time, creating fascinating mood changes.

Scriabin - Prelude Op. 16 No. 1

Alexander Scriabin, prelude op.16 nr.1,(1080p), International pianofestival "Pianotune 2011" Hasselt

I once got the Historic Edition, but I quickly ripped it and sold it. Only a few tracks are really worth it, like "Schwanensee I".
Seems to me the philosophy behind those massive releases is to just release anything that was recorded by KS no matter how weak the content.
While I still hold KS in very high esteem for his timeless classics from the 70s and the occasional good album in later decades, I've become more critical towards him recently.
When I take a look at some more recent videos of live performances on youtube, I feel that he is a bit of a one trick pony and his music hasn't evolved at all... doing the same thing over and over again, the endless synth noodling, playing the same chords he has used for decades and randomly improvising a bit with his limited keyboard abilities. Sometimes it has its moments, but after a while it just gets dull.
It's nice for him that he still enjoys what he does and that there are still fans, but I have to say that - just like Tangerine Dream - KS' prime was in the 70s and he never really moved beyond that time.