Amongst Myselves

Originating from the seaside of suburban South Australia, Steve Roberts aka Amongst Myselves discovered electronics and electronic music at a young age. A keen listener of experimental radio programs of the day, he picked up a wanderlust to create his own sounds. With 7 releases under his belt and keen to do more exploration with the satisfaction his music is enjoyed all around the planet.

Amongst Myselves released "The Sun In The Bottle" in 1999. The style of this album was new age in its basis with a hint of electro-acoustics, but not until his 2001 release “Still Life” did he start to find a doorway to his own landscape.

The success of "Still Life" led Australian radio program "Ultima Thule" to contract Amongst Myselves to create their new theme based on the "Still Life" track "Ship of Dreams". “Sacred Black” was the next release, a journey influenced by fifteenth century religious persecution, astrophysics, the desolation of a sleeping city at 5am and the Martin Denny classic, 'Quiet Village'. “Eight tracks (51 minutes) of lovely audio-ephemera unfurls with easy-to-fall-into fluidity.” said David J Opdyke

"Auburn Silhouette" was released in 2007. "To me this album is about light and the sky. I like the chaos that rules these natural elements and that humanity has no rule over them. I liken the tracks on the album to different weather patterns." said Roberts. “Auburn Silhouette” was the first album to include a DVD featuring 3 short films created to accompany tracks from the album. "I've found that the film work I have been doing helps inspire the sound.”

 In the southern summer of 2010 Amongst Myselves released “Fragments”.  A very ambient remix of his previous three albums, “Still Life”, “Sacred Black” and “Auburn Silhouette”. As Chuck Van Zyl put it “The results range from sustaining lines of sound and minimal electronic modulations to rich arrangements of considerable complexity. While proudly synthetic, Fragments (as all music by Amongst Myselves) offsets any hint of its machine origins with a consonant warmth corresponding with a more reflective human mood.” Fragments went on to be nominated for “Best Electronic” and “Best Ambient” album for 2010 in the annual Zone Music awards.

Before and during the creation of “Fragments”, Amongst Myselves was also working on a 'concert in your living room' performance to be videoed for DVD. Released as a DVD and CD with the title “Ambient, Landscape and Space” which is how Amongst Myselves describes his styles of music and thus hints at the variation of the tracks. Focussing on the visual content which is a combination of live video footage, 3D animation, timelapse photography and the re-animated, unsettling oil paintings of Bernard Haseloff, brings an added depth to Amongst Myselves'  darker moments.

Having spent the last two albums looking backwards, "The Past Is Another Country", is an apt title for his next dark and inward-looking release. It took a new direction in composition which left more melodic pieces behind to explore more experimental landscapes. "I've gone for a more drone type approach but using some natural sounds / field recordings to do the drones for me in some cases. The result is quite dark in mood but there is a good amount of lighter contrasting pieces as well", said Roberts.

In 2020, “The Good Earth”, came with a change in his life having moved away from the city. This album came from many improvised sessions using his home made and purchased hardware synths. “I’m appreciating having limitations as far as my instruments go. Too many options equals too many distractions”. This release also saw the companion piece release of the 20 minutes film piece based on the track, “On The Margins”. This explores the presence of former inhabitants of abandoned buildings who took the land to its limit and the seemingly unchanging heavens that overlook them. One reviewer stated "The Good Earth" as “One of the best Dark Ambient album I heard in a long time”.

To be released in December 2023, "An Abandoned Day" focuses on endings. The end of environments, human life, light and the universe. Us humans have made use of this planet beyond its ability to survive. All life is feeling the impact and eventually all of humanity, not just to less privileged, will suffer heavily unless something is done to stop and reverse this assault. Our connection with the environment has been lost as has our connection with the night and the universe. We only see the universe as something to conquer and now somewhere to escape the mess we have created on this planet, the only planet that can sustain life that we know of, Earth.