Track Listing:
(click links for mp3 samples)

1. Sketch 4
2. One Thousand Voices
3. Object of Desire
4. Will You
5. Nina Sleeping
6. I Remember You
7. Mistress of the Moon
8. Smiles of Angels
9. A Glimpse of You
10. First Chord

$9.99

Jeffrey Roden: Electric Bass and Synthesizers
Steve Roden: Sounds, Loops, and Electronics
All Music Arranged and Composed by: Jeffrey Roden
Produced by: Steve Roden and Andrew Bush
Engineered by: Andrew Bush
Basic Tracks by: George Cacamise
Mastered by: William Cook

"On 'Mary Ann's Dream' and 'Songs for Susan', Jeffrey Roden creates an experience of sound and texture that is as vast as it is intimate. His warm nimble adventurous bass lines glide across a land of headphone delight. Ear candy while listening to a sonic painting."

"Ambient meets Intellectual Jazz"

"Jeffrey Roden's release 'Songs for Susan' exudes warmth, beauty, and an uncommon subtle intelligence."

Very thematic in nature, “Song for Susan”, evokes haunting melodies through minimalist playing, with lots of open space. "

ampersand etcetera
Jeremy Keens

In some ways this is one of my occasional 'blasts from the past' reviews - cds which passed me by first time around. But this came a different route - Steve Roden sent me a copy of his uncles most recent cd ('The Floor of the Forest') which I reviewed in &etc v1.12. Following that Jeffrey sent me this, his 'previous' release from 1995. It has been waiting patiently in my list of disks to review, and on my desk looking questioningly at me, waiting for the zeitgeist to change and the planets to align with my mood - which seems to be now. So it has spent a few days cycling through my cd player, proving somewhat a slippery beast - it is both simple and engagingly beautiful.

As in the later disk, Roden plays acoustic bass, as a lead/solo instrument. The accompaniment is supplied by his own minimal synthesiser and percussion and vocals (voice tones really) from nephew Steve. The playing is restrained and spacious - we are not confronted by bombastic pyrotechnics, but rather seductive melodies picked gently and lovingly from the strings, close miked so that we hear fingers sliding between the notes. And while the backing loops and playing are mixed quite low, the bass is working with them, responding to their lines, echoing and dancing around their offerings, which actually makes them appear more prominent.

'Sketch 4' opens the disk and suggests the directions ahead: a rising tuned percussive loop with extended tones behind begins, a slow drum, and then Roden's bass enters, joining the melody of the ground, drifting from and over it, smooth mellow playing, fingers sliding along the strings. A very spacious 'One thousand voices' follows, the bass slow and subtle as metallic percussion sequences and tones stretch the mood. The shimmering percussion of the 'Object of desire' captures your attention, but it is the simple bass melody that wins it. While the bass plays with the loops throughout, in 'Will you' the interplay between the figure and ground of the two elements emerges as a duet, in a lovely song.

The mood continues in 'Nina sleeping' and 'I remember you' with layers of bass, percussion and tones creating dreamswaying melody. A voice tone accompanies the strings on 'Mistress of the moon', a hornsound and more prominent drumming creating a brighter, livelier tone shaped partly by the lightness of the vocal line. Light shines from the 'Smile of angels' through the delicate synth sequence and shimmering tones in the middle, over which the bass strays. Strong synth waves develop and become quite dominant in 'A glimpse of you', and one of the few really singable lines occurs on 'First chord' where the bass at times sounds like the title song to 'Absolute beginners' (which I know is a jazz standard, or based on one, but my jazz is sadly lacking) and is supported by a beaty rhythm, and occasional straying into light atonality. Beautifully engaging, this is an album to allow to flow around you, sink into and enjoy, a complex sensual pleasure.