#root strata

Tracklist 1 Templar 9:35 2 Tong War 5:42 3 Quandari 16:55 4 Vari 4:51 5 Nec Spero 2:03 6 Moss Landing 4:40 7 Chualar 2:23 8 Atl Atl 2:54 9 Nec Metus 8:10 10 Drita 2:36 11 Monument 4:53 12 Reini 7:15 13 Ghost Cloud 1:24 always brings me peace...

https://rootstrata.com/rootblog / https://www.recitalprogram.com

2015

2011

Harold Budd - Perhaps

En - The Absent Coast (Root Strata, 2010) Genre: Drone, Ambient Artwork: Jefre Cantu-Ledesma & Maxwell August Croy Bandcamp

Arrow Kleeman: Phase Reps & Builds (2011) Reviewed format: FLAC download released on Root Strata Hey hey, after having reviewed lilienthal's (Arrow Kleeman) 1999 album Castor & Pollux, I sent him the review and he definitely liked it and recommended me to check out his most recent album under his own name Phase Reps & Builds, released on Root Strata on cassette and digital in 2011. I'm reviewing the digital download in this case, which includes the full 9 track album in 16-bit/44.1kHz CD quality with the original cover in good quality too. Phase Reps & Builds is definitely a different album to Arrow's work as lilienthal, as this music is not as rhythmic and leans more towards analog sounding droning synth tracks that feature a lot of bright and driving melodic patterns. The overall sonic picture definitely has more of a bright glowing shine to it than the sometimes more metallic percussion infused grooves on Castor & Pollux. The 9 tracks all vary a bit in length, sometimes being a bit short and fading out, sometimes longer and building more in terms of progression. At 50 minutes it's shorter than Castor & Pollux and I did feel at the end like, I wanna hear more, but fortunately none of these 9 pieces feels cut short by their length. Auto Blips starts off the album with some sweet "modular" style synth patterns, all interwining quite nicely with varying rhythmic accents, one cool element about the droning piece of synth minimalistic is the way the music sometimes fades in and out of the reverb, sizing up the room and then bringing it back to close again. A fun playful piece of music that is both minimalistic and deep. Nu Phase has a more introspective "pondering" tone to its melody, as well as some sweet sounding synth drums accompanying the bright synth patterns stuttering around the sound space. It does have a cool Techno vibe about it too in the lower notes. Repeat Again has a funny title first of, cause indeed many notes and patterns in here do repeat again. This track also has more of a Techno vibe to it, especially with the bass synth, very nice, it's very sweet chiming piece of music. Strange Horns is a more Drone based piece with a nice shaker percussion accent in its rhythm that shifts towards a tambourine near the end, what's particularly nice about this track is the "shifting" effect of the synth patterns that's happening overtime in the track, allowing your to dive more indepth into the seperate notes of the patterns and the layers of the track, and yes there's "horns" in here as well. Locust Like is a really nice short piece with yes, an even deeper Techno bass. This one has a really cool combination of bass, diffuse deep pad and driving synth pattern, wish it was longer, but as it is, it's a really sweet track. Long Lungs is an interesting track that is again shorter, but has a great slow slow melody that repeats and constantly unwraps itself overtime, sweet minimal drums in the first half too, mysterious ambience. Live Drone is the longest piece on Phase Reps & Builds and sounds like a mixture of Krautrock electronics and Dub Techno without the drums, it's a strongly driving very bright piece with plenty of high frequency harmonics (these do appear quite often on other tracks on this album too) and a very positive vibe, you can really dive into this and follow the piece progress and unravel itself, sounds good. Charmour is probably the most straightforward piece on the album, it's a nice introspective melody again though and another enjoyable and well composed piece of music. Title track Phase Reps & Builds is a real culmination point on this album where the droning synth patterns, ambience also gets combined with droning but also screechy guitar, that is surpisingly distorted, gives it a bit of a shoegaze influence in a way even. Very progressive and deep, great closing track. Phase Reps & Builds is a great, bright and deep album of progressive synth minimalism that once again showcases Arrow Kleeman's talent for captivating compositions combined with a great feel for sound design and sonic details. A great listen. MP3 / FLAC download is available from boomkat here: https://boomkat.com/products/phase-reps-builds-eb9a1fc8-6398-4ae8-94eb-a8b4e58e0803