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viewing 1 To 25 of 33 items
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RS 105LP
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Kagami is the duo of Jared Blum (Vision Heat, Gigante Sound) and Maxwell August Croy (En, Root Strata). Their eponymous debut, recorded between 2014 and 2017, finds the pair navigating a bracingly wide range of niches with aplomb and precision. Evoking summertime ambience, widescreen electronics, anthemic pop instrumentals, and windswept romantic gestures, Kagami is a charming and dramatic record that at times recalls the soundtrack to some lost title from Nintendo's golden age or perhaps a spiritual successor to the miniatures of Yasuaki Shimizu's Music for Commercials (1987). Original cover art by Brenna Murphy; Layout by Konrad Jandavs. Mastered by Helmut Erler; Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Includes download code.
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RS 108LP
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Ricochet Screen is the first proper LP from New York based TINT (aka Zane Morris). Encompassed as an overview of his solo recordings dating as far back as 2007, Ricochet Screen unfolds as a storied arc on the obsessiveness of composition, conception, and mechanism. Culled from ad hoc recordings in vacant industrial buildings, lunchroom cafeterias, and bedroom studios, the record functions as a meditative associative collage regarding a rebounding from omnipresent glass monitors, intrusive security measures, and indeterminate barriers. Includes download code; Edition of 300.
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RS 106LP
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Montreal stalwart Roger Tellier Craig (of Le Révélateur and Fly Pan Am) returns to Root Strata under his given name to offer a stunningly abstract pair of compositions indicating a severe departure from his earlier work. While Instantanés might at first evoke acousmatic and musique concrète traditions, the two side-long snapshots Roger presents feel far more spontaneous and rustic than those trappings might suggest, or as Luc Ferrari would say "a concrète music of the poor." A studied meditation over ten years in the making, Instantanés is a surreal mix of the familiar and the alien, a lush garden indifferent to human cultivation or experience. Includes download code.
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RS 107LP
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A somnambulant journey through psychedelic bedroom fantasy-scapes, Glare is Roe Enney's first proper LP after only a few under-the-radar cassette releases on Phaserprone, Discriminate, and Piero since 2011. Recorded over the last couple years in the late evening at the cusp of the witching hour, Glare unfolds like a manifesto on the devolution of communication. An experiment of thresholds: electronic, political, poetical, Roe Enney touches on the likes of Tara Cross or Anne Clark, but only briefly before hurtling into a subterranean world of closed-off obsessions. Enney on the release: "The electronic artist is always enmeshed in a battle of thresholds. What does one do? This is because she, the electronic spirit, is always in the process of change. This spirit is never stable, it is tenuous. It is a moving hierarchy, a royal island with a v. real topography, with its own guard, observation deck, casino. The music on this record firmly pledges allegiance to this island, and yet it is out somewhere on the shore, perhaps 'dreaming of elsewhere.' Yet one cannot help what one is. Perhaps the record is cast-off." Mastered by Sean McCann; Cut at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin. Includes download code.
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RS 103LP
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Kietsuzukeru Echo (which loosely translates to "Disappearing Echo") is Tokyo, Japan stalwart Hisato Higuchi's second offering for Root Strata - his first being an a cappella track for the Tsuki No Seika 7" series in 2011. After over two decades of releases on P.S.F. Records, Family Vineyard, Apollolaan Recordings, and a steady string on his own imprint Ghost Disc, Hisato's latest effort marks a stylistic, yet finely distilled, return to his earliest live sets from the mid-1990s - documented in the P.S.F. record Early Works (2012). Conjuring an incredibly intimate space with only guitar and voice, the home-recorded Kietsuzukeru Echo is illuminated from within. Eight songs of soliloquy and scene, eight songs that disappear. Includes download code.
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RS 104LP
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NU LP For RS marks the first proper LP for No UFO's - Soft Coast on Spectrum Spools (SP 011LP, 2010) was considered a demo - and having been diagnosed with Carpal tunnel syndrome, will likely be the last of its kind. Eschewing the heavy gestures of today's musical zeitgeist, NU LP finds Konrad Jandavs utilizing tape machines, foley libraries, and rare synthesizers and amplifiers to construct an oblique sound world evoking reception, perception and agency. Of NU LP, Konrad states: "I was trying hard to avoid making another 3 Feet High And Rising (1989) and that basically meant I was making a De La Soul Is Dead (1991), but in the end it seems clear to me that I skipped ahead and made a Buhloone Mindstate (1993)."
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RS 102LP
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JS Truchy, aka Jean-Sébastien Truchy, presents Transmission in an Expanse of Firelight, Hear Me!, his first proper full length record. A linchpin of Montreal's experimental community for over two decades, Jean-Sébastien Truchy has performed with Fly Pan Am, Set Fire To Flames and Avec Le Soleil Sortant De Sa Bouche among countless others as well as co-running the presently defunct Los Discos Enfantasmes label. After a string of tape releases on LDE, Digitalis, Sic Sic among others, Transmission in an Expanse of Firelight, Hear Me! is Truchy's first proper full length record. Combining elements of musique concrète, field recordings, plaintive MIDI strings and emotive vocals Transmission unfolds like a stage production or opera in which all the characters are refracted into one. In his own words "I try to look at sounds and structures as neutral elements that have not yet been categorized by preconceived thoughts, judgement and/or taste - to apply the idea of emptiness to sounds, structure and form." LP includes download code.
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RS 101LP
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Aakash marks the debut recording of the Portland, Oregon-based trio of Matt Carlson (Golden Retriever), Michael Stirling (a disciple of the late Hindustani master Pandit Pran Nath and a student of Terry Riley), and Doug Theriault. Derived from live improvisational performances, the record finds Carlson's rich analog synthesizers joined by real-time processing of Stirling's lilting voice and Theriault's idiosyncratic guitar work and electronics. Dipping into a kind of liminal void, Aakash isn't just cosmic raga. It's a subtle journey; microvisions of inner terrain. Includes download code.
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RS 099LP
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Recorded between 2012 and 2014, Jared Blum's (GiganteSound, The Talking Book (with Bill Gould of Faith No More), Blanketship, Vulcanus 68, et al.) Vision Heat project is a laser-guided, hyper-vintage conflation of early-to-mid-'80s-centric production, montage, and style. Recalling such luminaries as Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Harold Faltermeyer, and Craig Safan, and such lofty houses as KPM, Bruton, and Parry, with nods to oddballs from Russia and the Eastern Bloc, Blum still manages to be forcefully yet effortlessly unique. Inspired by countless soundtrack compilations and blog mixes of rare, foreign library, and VHS music, Vision Heat varies in production style and technique as if it were the definitive archive, deftly genre-skipping from moody sci-fi suspense, incidental queues, and dramatic scores to uplifting electro-boogie, synthpop, and cinematic arrangements. Ultimately so much more than an homage, The Chosen Themes is a subtle and skilled conjuring of a full spectrum re-imagined past. Part two of a two-volume set, following Program I (RS 098LP, 2015). Includes download code.
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RS 100LP
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Precipice is Byron Westbrook's first long-playing record under his given name. Operating under the handle Corridors for many years, Westbrook has established a reputation for creating immersive, multi-channel, site-specific live experiences using sound, image, and light. Precipice expands upon these ideas as a collection of approaches to texture, landscape, perception of time, and the potential for sound to generate visual space. Like climbing a column that inexplicably leads to a plateau of glass, the topography above and below visible in crystal clear relief. Byron Westbrook is an artist and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. He works with listening, space, perception, and awareness, often pursuing routes with social engagement. His electronic sound interventions play with dynamics of perception of space, sometimes manifesting as multi-channel sound performances or as small- or large-scale installation work using video or lighting. He has presented work at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Clocktower Gallery (NYC), ISSUE Project Room (NYC), Abrons Arts Center (NYC), Roulette Intermedium (NYC), Diapason Gallery (NYC), Eyebeam (NYC), BRIC Arts Media House (NYC), LMAKprojects (NYC), Human Resources (Los Angeles), The Lab (San Francisco), International House (Philadelphia), VIVO Media Arts Centre (Vancouver), Les Voûtes (Paris), Festival Colla+eral (Bologna), O' (Milan), Cyberfest (St. Petersburg), and many others. He studied with David Behrman, Marcus Schmickler, Laetitia Sonami, and Marina Rosenfeld for his MFA from Bard College, and has also toured and collaborated with Rhys Chatham. He has also worked closely with Phill Niblock at Experimental Intermedia in NYC since 2005. He has been an artist in residence at Clocktower Gallery, The Wassaic Project, Diapason Gallery, and HotelPupik, and was a 2014 Civitella Ranieri Fellow. LP includes download code.
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RS 098LP
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Recorded between 2012 and 2014, Jared Blum's (GiganteSound, The Talking Book (with Bill Gould of Faith No More), Blanketship, Vulcanus 68, et al.) Vision Heat project is a laser-guided, hyper-vintage conflation of early-to-mid-'80s-centric production, montage, and style. Recalling such luminaries as Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Harold Faltermeyer, Craig Safan, and such lofty houses as KPM, Bruton, and Parry with nods to oddballs from Russia and the Eastern Bloc, Blum still manages to be forcefully yet effortlessly unique. Inspired by countless soundtrack compilations and blog mixes of rare, foreign library and VHS music, Vision Heat varies in production style and technique as if it were the definitive archive, deftly genre-skipping from moody sci-fi suspense, incidental queues, and dramatic scores to uplifting electro-boogie, synthpop, and cinematic arrangements. Ultimately so much more than an homage, The Chosen Themes are a subtle and skilled conjuring of a full spectrum re-imagined past. Part one of a two-volume set. LP includes download code. Exclusive video stills provided by Jennifer Juniper Stratford.
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RS 093LP
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Masque Femine should be regarded as a total work -- much like a film, a ballet, a building, or, an altarpiece -- rather than as an album of individual songs. And, its fundamental subject should not be understood to be romantic love. Christina Carter was born in the bayou city of Houston, Texas in November of 1968, and co-founded the group Charalambides there in December of 1991. Ever since then, she has deeply mined her own vein of sound-as-music with voice, guitar (both electric and acoustic), piano, and keys. For the past several years, Christina has utilized extended improvisational guitar passages within and without song-medley structures; re-contextualized certain Charalambides songs within the spare single guitar/voice form that birthed much of the group's music; and recently, investigated "the song" as a thing unto itself, specifically concentrating on "the word" -- both in her own lyric writing and her interpretations of the work of other lyricists.
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CD
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RS 015CD
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2006 release. On Earth, is the first studio document created by the group, recorded with Marcelo Spinna at the Space in May 2006 with production assistance from Pete Swanson (Yellow Swans). While previous CD-R releases were entirely improvised, On Earth is comprised of three untitled pieces composed by the group with elements of restrained improvisation. Musically, each piece has a specific concern, ranging from extremely subtle microtonal shifts to distorted crashes of intervals against one another. On Earth captures the reductive Bonus sound with all the sustained tones and sparkling textures, but with a more focused and succinct delivery.
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RS 037CD
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2008 release. Figs, Wasps, and Monotremes is the second Common Eider, King Eider disc by Rob Fisk (Badgerlore, Free Porcupine Society). Recorded winter (2008) in Fairbanks, Alaska, it's full of the kind of bedroom isolation you might expect from a place where during that time of year the sun rises for only about two hours a day. Using mostly violin, guitar and his lovely falsetto, Fisk has crafted a bewitching set of soundtracks for being utterly lost. These passages ring out into the night and last until the moments just before waking. Songs on the brink of implosion, born of soft small movements that billow upwards but still cast an eye towards the occasional outbursts of bleak distortion. Comes in an 3 panel, offset printed folder with silver on white.
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RS 034CD
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2009 release. First proper CD of this on-going collaboration between Matt Christensen/Mike Weis of Zelienope and Scott Tuma of Souled American and Boxhead Ensemble. Given that background, it should come as no surprise how far-off sounding and echo drenched this disc is. Incorporating a wide range of acoustic and electric instruments, both live and from tapes of previous performances, the group fully indulge their wanderlust, floating on the back of massive plates of soft focus hiss and falling head first into deep reverb canyons. Vocals sometimes wisp by, as do blasted edges of percussion and Tuma's lovely guitar nocturnes, but it's all desperately distant, more like a distorted memory of a band playing many years after the show has ended. Edition of 300 copies in an offset printed sleeve with cover photos by Mike Weis.
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RS 035CD
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2008 release. After a number of CD-Rs, tapes and other underground ephemera, Three for Malachi Ritscher is the first proper CD by Los Angeles free thinkers Andrew Scott and Helga Fassonaki. Through ringing passages of guitar, pedal steel, and wordless vocals, this disc climbs to thoughtless vistas of microtones and gushing feedback that inevitably implodes into vast reverberant spaces only to begin the cycle again and again. As a point of entry, the duo's craft can be seen as the joining of their love of many disparate musical forms, from the folk music of the Middle East & Asia to the underground histories of Japan & New Zealand, all mainlined through damaged delay and distortion via their own individual visions. Comes in a heavy black on black offset printed Arigato Pak.
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RS 022CD
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2007 release. Nature jams from the Northern California peace crew. Brian Pyle (one half of the core Starving Weirdos duo) his brother Jon, and their bro Spencer traverse the twilight moon as RV Paintings. Trinity Rivers is a suite of three nocturnal jams, way heavy on the hypnotic vibe. Wine glasses, holographic guitar circles and drum lines unite to form a fantasy world -- but not in color -- all black and white with smears of metallic sliver. Eno circa On Land with Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument after a midnight swim on the ocean. This is by far one of the most beautiful and totally dark audio documents out of the Weirdos camp.
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RS 032CD
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2008 release. Already released as a series of 3" CD-R's, we're proud to finally drop Taiga Remains' blazing white-out guitar suite Ribbons Of Dust. Although originally conceived as stand-alone pieces, the four tracks that make up this hour long disc can easily be seen as one continuous meditation on total delay emptiness as channeled through the electric six-string drone worship of Flying Saucer Attack and Andrew Chalk. Not at all the overtone distortion that Mr. Cobb usually trips in, these verses seem to have been written during heavy snowed in nights that lapsed into early morning. Vibrating, soothing, disturbing, and completely built for headphone trips to the stratosphere. Comes in a chipboard pack with black ink letterpressed artwork.
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7"
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RS 056EP
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2011 split 7" from Chicago mope-rock luminaries Zelienople and Tokyo-based guitarist Hisato Higuchi. Limited edition of 300 copies.
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RS 033CD
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2008 release. The Gold Hooped Nature is the debut long player by California dreamer John Davis. Picking up where his 3" CD-R At Home And Afeild left off, this disc is a scenic set of audio drift that easily zigzags dense passages of analog crunch as well as blank vistas of crystalline tones via guitars, found sounds, contact microphones, tape speed oscillations, field recordings and a small battery of effects. John's study as a Filmmaker & Photographer definitely plays some roll here, with any number of landscapes (real or imagined, inner or outer) being brought to mind. Way less head than heart though, with plenty of these tracks dipped in a romantic glaze that betrays any tendency to over conceptualize drone / ambient / whatever music. It's more wide-eyed sunset, lost west coast stargazing than that. And we suspect the endless Midwest horizons of John's youth are in there as well.
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RS 040CD
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2008 release. Off Light is the first proper CD by Portland based musician Scott Goodwin, who also spends time crafting tones in the trio Bonus. Not a huge departure from that group's direction here, although Scott has notched the distortion all the way down and cranked the pure tones up quite a bit. Composed entirely from sine waves, "Off Light" and its companion piece "Arc" are thrilling shifts in variation that move at a slight and measured pace, forming soft rhythmic beats that really seem to come alive at a high dose of volume, bouncing around the room like holographic reflections. If you could imagine a soundtrack to a zoned out meditation in a James Turrell sculpture, this would be it. Edition of 300 in an eye-popping two panel folder.
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RS 095LP
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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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RS 075LP
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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.
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RS 087LP
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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.
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LP
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RS 092LP
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The definitive version of this triptych of tectonic drift originally released as a CD-R on Sean McCann's own Recital label in 2011. "Our Silhouette," which blankets the whole of the first side with jewel-like piano runs and distant fading synths, may be one of the artist's most elegant moves. The reverse holds two tracks of long-form organ/string plateaus that float elegantly in space, refracting light and sound in patterns around the head.
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viewing 1 To 25 of 33 items
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