Expect no surprises from a disc with a title like Low Volume Music. Steve Roach teams up with Dirk Serries (aka, formerly, Vidna Obmana) for the first time in a decade, and the chemistry this time melts the air around you into a comfortable cocoon of drifting ambient. Low Volume Music delivers on its titular promise with an hour of unobtrusive flows that take on new character in a deeper listen. Liquescent guitar chords and shimmering synth pads extend and cross in a vast space, sonic vapor trails harmonizing as they fade into each other. The flow is warm and safe-sounding, a place to retreat into and remain. Tuning in deeper to the sound reveals a lot of textural work, precise and properly meted out in elegant doses. Adhering to the title’s suggestion, the five pieces here slowly fill the space, curving in air and hushing the outside world. While this disc is in the vein of Roach’s softest meditative drifts, such as Quiet Music and Structures from Silence, Low Volume Music is so supremely laid back that it makes those two look like they’re trying too hard. Leave this on repeat for hours. It’s thinking music, it’s sleeping music, it’s being music. Roach and Serries have returned with a disc that sets a fresh standard in the ambient landscape.

Available at the Steve Roach web site.