Browse by Label: ROOT STRATA

Artist:	STARVING WEIRDOS
Title:	Shrine Of The Post-Hypnotic
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 020CD

2007 release. "More heavy head trips from the Weirdos camp. Shrine Of The Post-Hypnotic is the second real CD released by the group, and by far the most coherent one to date. Flowing like an epic nighttime hike through the damp forest of the Northern California coast, it's packed to the brim with acoustic sound worlds and moon beams of electricity. Unfolding slowly, It never peaks out, instead drifting along like a dense patch of heavy coastal fog."

Artist:	SMITH, STEVEN R.
Title:	The Anchorite
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 024CD

2008 release. "Originally released in 2006 on Important Records as a limited run LP in their ongoing Arts & Crafts Series, Root Strata is proud to present the reissue of The Anchorite, a dazzling jewel in Smiths substantial discography. Performed live to two track with the aide of tape loops and prerecorded takes, the music maintains a drifting, painterly quality that easily evokes the American west as much as the European east which Smith so lovingly mines for his Hala Strana recordings. Sepia toned and tinged with a luminous distortion, The Anchorite, as the name suggests, is reserved, pulled back and solemn, some kind of hermetic prayer for the end of the world. Beautifully repackaged with new artwork in a heavy black & white gatefold CD case with offset printing."

Artist:	AHMED, ILYAS
Title:	Goner
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 030CD

"Portland, OR. bedroom wanderer Ilyas Ahmed emerges from the shadows and offers up his first new batch of songs in some time. Over a year in the making, Goner sees Ahmed telescoping his previous acoustic wanderings into fuzzed out rockers and a hypnotic set of beautifully tight knit nocturnes. The kick off of 'Earn Your Blood' is probably the most amped up and stoned out Ahmed has ever sounded, a heavy blown out thump of hiss & electric strum. From their Goner really gets lost. Loner howls, model hypnosis, desolate vamps... it's all here. The comedown into 'Exit Twilight' with Grouper on vocals is as haunting a broadcast you'll hear all year, for sure to knock around in your skull for days. Edition of 1000 CDs in an offset buff case with maroon ink."

Artist:	CARTER, CHRISTINA
Title:	Lace Heart
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	2LP
Price:	$29.00
Catalog #:	RS 036LP

"Double LP reissue of a 2005 CD-R released on Christina's own Many Breaths imprint. Six love songs comprised of elliptical bell like guitar phrases, barely there, sometimes even coaxing silence, set behind the extended vowel sounds of voice. Soft gentle performances here, like this whole record was cut very very late at night or in the early hours of the morning. An unhinged 'nowness' is pervasive in Christina's work, and Lace Heart is no exception. There is a very private feeling here, some kinda intimacy that just feels really rare. Lovers of past, present & future all collapse into one. Memories of smells, tastes & textures all channeled into wide open song. No one really does it like this. Three sides of music & and an etching of one of Christina's drawings on the fourth side. Red vinyl with maroon splatter. Edition of 500."

Artist:	BARN OWL
Title:	The Conjurer
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 045CD

"The Conjurer is the latest offering by Bay Area duo Barn Owl. This new long player finds Evan Caminiti and Jon Porras finally (by way of an actual recording studio) documenting something that is a bit closer to their very heavy live sets, with expanded peaks of white light distortion and enormous valleys of bottom end. Each side opens with a brief funeral dirge to set the mood, a procession of bare-bones drum beats and bell-like guitar statements that bridge the gap to the wider open spaces of the almost side long 'Across The Desert Of Ash' and 'Ancient Of Days.' It may seem obvious, or even a little overwrought, but it has to be said that these guys really do evoke all kinds of cinematic drama with their music. Apocalyptic westerns, bleak melodramas, mother nature fever dreams, it all seems to come to mind amid the evening guitar passages, incantations, flute tones, and finally, the solo piano that emerges lost among the electric mayhem to close the album. Considering the amount of terrain, The Conjurer is far from being scattered or rushed sounding. The record as a whole moves at a crafted even rhythm, slowly merging from one scene of violence to the next of almost silent recovery, then back up the mountain again. Cover by Evan Caminiti." CD version of the 2009 LP.

Artist:	WALLACE, ZACH
Title:	Glass Armonica
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 046CD

"Glass Armonica is the first solo CD by musician Zach Wallace. When not counting fauna in the Montana wilderness, Zach can be seen performing across the incense sticks from Greg Davis in their stoic long form drone duo Sun Circle. Zach's Armonica, based loosely on Benjamin Franklin's 1761 design, is built entirely from thrift store bought wine glasses and has been modified to handle multiple players. The performances captured here were recorded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the spring of 2007. The results are not too far off from what you might imagine if you've ever coaxed sound waves from the rim of a wine glass with your finger. Now just imagine multiplying that sound a few times over until you arrive at a dense fog of resonant tones that hover in mid air while concurrently penetrating your pituitary glad. That's getting close. Edition of 500 in an offset white case with silver ink."

Artist:	GRASSLUNG
Title:	Sincere Void
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 059CD

"Grasslung is the moniker of Brooklyn based musician Jonas Asher. Sincere Void is Asher's first major above ground release and we're happy to help him migrate out of the dungeon and into the twilight. After a string of small run tapes & CD-R's that ventured into the outer realms of damaged analog drone, Asher has taken on a whole new vision for his music. The opener 'Scarred Hands We Drift' sets the tone, with lush waves of delayed notes that usher in the records various paths of gauzy atmospherics, piano drift, lost melodies and body rhythms built from static. This music is bare in the best way, with most of the tracks here held together by pings of electricity or faint loops of harmony shot from the other side, all slowly crafted into melancholic tapestries good for keeping you warm during midnight trips to the void. Edition of 500 CDs in offset printed sleeve."

Artist:	PITRE, DUANE
Title:	Origin
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	RS 068CD

"Now available on CD in an edition of 500. The entirety of Origin's musical material is comprised of the vibrating strings of Pitre's ensemble of bowed 'harmonic-guitars,' which are unconventionally strung electric guitars (utilizing multi-unisons) tuned to intervals corresponding with the Harmonic Series, a.k.a. Just Intonation. No effects processing (pre or post) was used in this recording. All effect-like qualities result from the multi-unison strings (phasing), sympathetic vibrations, combination/difference tones (of the chosen just tuning), and natural acoustic phenomena as such."

Artist:	COMMON EIDER, KING EIDER
Title:	Worn
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 072LP

"Now expanded to a four piece, Common Eider, King Eider have crafted yet another blast of high-end wind chill that whips through the empty spaces in your skull. More stories of flora and fauna that hang beautifully in dynamic rooms of piano, strings, voices; and stargazing guitar explosions born of layer after layer of feedback. This ghost world is all gray and black, with a high condensation of loss penetrating throughout. Moonlight occasionally lights the path, but for the most part, prepare to be lost in the woods. Liz Harris (Grouper) and Tom Carter (Charalambides) on the tracks 'Ennui' and 'Earth Liver' add to the overall sense of dread." Includes poster.

Artist:	GOLDEN RETRIEVER
Title:	Light Cones
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 075LP

2011 release. Golden Retriever was formed in Portland, Oregon in 2008 by multi-instrumentalists Jonathan Sielaff and Matt Carlson, both long-time participants in the city's potent music scene. Focusing on the relationship of two primarily monophonic instruments (Carlson on modular synthesizer & Sielaff on bass clarinet), and utilizing layering with a deft balance of improvisation & composition, the duo has created an infinitely varied approach to their sound world: dense, spacious, overwhelming, soothing and completely alien in equal measure. Light Cones is unique in the Golden Retriever discography as it's their first release more akin to their live performances, with each of the LP sides consisting of one extensive track. Both sides find the group exploring the various colors of their pallet. From the electronic bog that opens side A, to the more zoned-out meditations of the first half of side B. Sielaff's bass clarinet continues to be an anchor for the duo, with its lower organ-like register providing a wide earthly gravity for the layering of sound.

Artist:	VESTALS
Title:	Forever Falling Toward The Sky
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 077LP

" Forever Falling Toward the Sky is the first ever release by Bay Area based Vestals, AKA Lisa McGee. A taught set of haunting electric ballads, these five tracks weave together a number of layered guitars and vocals into a smokey tapestry of blown electricity. Rather than the ephemeral drones McGee has been involved with recently, most notably the group-mind ensemble Portraits & the duo Higuma, Vestals retains the clarity of song, with these hypnotic gyms having been slowly carved out over a year of recording & mixing. Filled out with drum machine & bass, Forever Falling Toward the Sky really does have the feeling of a group completely jelled, hammering out feedback in a California basement, high on guitar worship & sunsets." Edition of 300 copies, featuring guest appearances by Evan Caminiti (the Barn Owl dude!) and Trevor Montgomery (Tarantel).

Artist:	DATE PALMS
Title:	Of Psalms
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 079LP

"Music for the rain forests of the moon, straight out of Oakland CA. Of Psalms is the debut album by Date Palms, the duo of Marielle Jackobsons and Gregg Kowalsky. The two have birthed a suite of slowed-down music of the spheres, with a canopy of glowing fog and a heavy narcotic bass pulse that keeps the whole thing rooted straight into the earth. It's a heady mix of alap paced violin phrases, jewel-toned keys, harp swells, distorted tapes and ever present bass waves all crafted with precision detail in a humid space that leaves a dreamy imprint in the mind long after waking. Although separately Jackobsons and Kowalsky have made inroads into these types of landscapes before (Gregg with his Tape Chants series and Marielle with MYRMYR & Darwinsbitch), nothing really compares the world of Of Psalms that the two created together with its perfect balance of micro and macro, inner and outer, cosmic and earth bound, casting some sort of old world magic on everyone within range."

Artist:	PAYNE, MAGGI
Title:	Ahh-Ahh: Music for Ed Tannenbaum's Technological Feets 1984-1987
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 081LP

Last copies of this 2012 release. The music on this LP was originally composed by Maggi Payne from 1984-1987 for the performance group Technological Feets. Formed by video artist Ed Tennenbaum in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1981, the group combines dance, live video processing and music. This is the first time these recordings have ever been released on vinyl, and aside from the track "Ahh-Ahh (Ver 2.1)," the first time any of it has ever been officially released. Composed on an Apple II computer & various early sampling devices, Payne's compositions are a vibrant response to the call from the moving body. Populated with buoyant pulses, graceful analog swells, dense, fog-like drones and cascading rhythms that shift in space, AHH-AHH is a vital document of not only these early collaborations, but of computer-based music as well. She studied with many greats in the field, including Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley & David Behrman.

Artist:	PORRAS, JON
Title:	Undercurrent
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 083LP

"Edition of 500. California Gothic set to the tidal rhythms of the Pacific and tuned into the metabolic pathways of the northwest coast. Porras (Barn Owl/Elm) has scripted a love poem to the mist, a prayer cast in ghostly reflected guitar and deep pools of distortion. The ominous opening of 'Gray Dunes' is a dense and impenetrable murk, a fear that eventually succumbs to distortion but then gives way to an endless open space of delay in its second half. Its trajectory is symbolic of the record as a whole, with many of the darker paths on Undercurrent leading to lush other worlds of delicate beauty, fragile guitar notes that emerge from the sea for a moment or two then fade back into the whole. 'Calm' and 'Lands End' are lovely spots of respite, clear beams of moonlight breaking through the clouds, a shot of light that ushers in the lone funerary come down of closer 'Gaze'."

Artist:	YOUNGS, RICHARD
Title:	Core to the Brave
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 087LP

Last copies of this 2012 release. With scores of releases both solo & in collaboration that stretch back for more than 20 years, Richard Youngs perhaps needs the least amount of introduction of any of the artists Root Strata has worked with. The label is extremely excited to help Richard add another singular entry into his discography. Core to the Brave hits with a shock and never lets up. Composed of what appears to be blown-out bass & spastic drum rhythms, these tracks cascade into shimmering loops of distortion, their weight reaching a critical mass that often feels like it's on the verge of ecstatic collapse. Everything is elevated further in & up by that one and only voice floating over the top like a lush wind come down from the mountains.

Artist:	MESSAGES
Title:	Mirage
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 095LP

Primordial moves and stone cold drones from this New York duo of Taketo Shimada and Tres Warren (Sacred Bones Records). Save for a small long-gone edition of CD-Rs, Mirage is the third full-length release by Messages, recorded in 2008 before their first two albums and has remained unreleased until now. This record documents the duo's earliest long-form drone explorations and intonations, most of which were recorded during long sessions in Tres' basement bunker in the East Village. Mixing orbits of homemade acoustic instruments, electric drones and percussion, Mirage is a humid transmission sent straight from the womb.

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Artist:	HAGUCHI/ZELIENOPLE, HISATO
Title:	Tsuki No Seika Volume Four
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	7"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	RS 056EP

Artist:	MCCANN, SEAN
Title:	Prelusion
Label:	ROOT STRATA
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	RS 092LP