Collected from the Sounds Are Active and Joyful Noise record labels, Strata- A Young Person’s Guide To Experimental Music, presents both previously unreleased and downloadable tracks with album cuts.

Produced by Chris Schlarb and Karl Hofstetter
Artwork by Tim McMullen

Track Listing
01. Philippians- New Inspiration
02. Melk The G6-49- The Instantaneous Mobilization of All the Resources in the BURROW and All the Forces of My Body and Soul
03. Deneir- Charting Oblivion
04. Soul-Junk- Genesis 15
05. MakeShift:Shelter- Faux Hawk
06. Lafcadio- Noticing Drastic Changes in Individuality and Enlightenment at Such a Young Age
07. Bizzart- Nivek (outputmessage remix)
08. Patagonian- Cage
09. Create (!)- Durindana
10. Electric iLL- Funaise
11. Gratis- Means and Ends (instrumental version)
12. Abner Trio- One
13. Manners for Husbands- Lions
14. I Heart Lung- Moving Through Colour (excerpt)
15. Receptor Sight- Bagel & Green

Press
“A co-release between the Sounds Are Active and Joyful Noise labels, Strata: A Young Person’s Guide to Experimental Music lives up to its title pretty well — even if not a kid’s album in a classic sense, there’s often a gentle, merry playfulness about this 15-track selection which gives a number of creative groups a chance to show what they can do in a post-indie/IDM/everything else vein. The most well-known would doubtless be Soul-Junk, whose pursuit of any number of musical muses over the years has turned out to be a quiet triumph of dedication and art — their retelling of “Genesis 15″ makes most attempts at indie rap seem like the lazy mess it is; lead man Glen’s voice sounds like he’s broadcasting from the outer planets. But things are hardly limited to that, as everything from grinding feedback freneticism into haunted drone from Melk the G6-49 to Lafcadio’s semi-math/rap rock and I Heart Lung’s Mogwai-leaning instrumental mini-epic “Moving Through Colour.” Track times are all over the map as well — Deneir’s brief tone/beat collage “Charting Oblivion” is under a minute, Receptor Sight’s own take on post-rock reach and majesty, “Bagel & Green,” is almost a quarter-of-an-hour. The slyest track — Patagonian’s “Cage (Reenactment of More Encores)” — sounds about like what one would expect.”- All Music Guide

The Sounds Are Active “Side” teems with spastic new work from Melk The G6-49, Bizzart and Deneir. New and unreleased tracks from Soul-Junk, Vla Hemia and Create (!). Softer pieces contributed by Xn. (featuring a slick remix from hip-hop producer supreme Omid) and the brooding “Two Planes for Elliott Smith” by the Constantine/Levin/Phillips/Schlarb/Shadduck quintet.

Track Listing
Asthmatic Kitty Side
01. Sufjan Stevens – All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
02. Half-Handed Cloud – Let’s Build A Planet
03. Viva Voce – Red D-Lish
04. Liz Janes – Guitar Guitar
05. Castanets – I’ll Be Just Where You Are
06. Sufjan Stevens – Happy Birthday
07. Half-Handed Cloud – Pressing Into It
08. Liz Janes – Vine
09. Viva Voce – Welcome Mat
10. Half-Handed Cloud – Here’s A List
11. Sufjan Stevens – Year of the Tiger
Sounds Are Active Side
12. Deneir – Random Object Subject
13. Patagonian – Hands in the Face of Time
14. Xn. – gone home early (Omid Remix)
15. Vla Hemia – Break Loose
16. Soul-Junk – Nova (Evig Poesi Remix)
17. Bizzart – Pink Summer in Hell
18. Melk the G6-49 – Henry
19. Create(!) – Three Butterflies, Seven Mockingbirds
20. Constantine/Levin/Phillips/Schlarb/Shadduck – Two Planes for Elliot Smith

Press
“Proving that sisterhood is powerful, sibling labels Sounds Are Active and Asthmatic Kitty cram a grab bag of sounds- everything from hip-hop to free jazz to folky weirdness- onto one sampler. The Sounds Are Active half buzzes with new tracks from Soul-Junk, Bizzart, Vla Hemia and others.”- XLR8R

A collection of five short ambient guitar pieces from Chris Schlarb recorded in 1999 and released as a limited edition album totaling less than 10 minutes. Built around the unorthodox but simple sounds coaxed out of the electric guitar the original album was meant to be listened to repeatedly. After the limited release sold out, Schlarb contacted a number of different experimental, electronic and hip-hop artists to gauge interest in remixes and reinterpretations.

Collected here in this remastered and remixed release are three distinctly individual representations of ideas without numbers. Each of the original five pieces have been remixed twice and laid aside one another in their own distinct space. Remixes from Omid (Freestyle Fellowship, Beneath the Surface), outputmessage (Ghostly International, Dabrye), languis (Plug Research, Nobody), Siamese Sisters (Vla Hemia), Accident (Bizzart, Acid Reign), Patagonian, Yochannan, therefore, Deneir and anaphylaxis.

Track Listing
01. gone home early [mp3]
02. palindromic tone
03. migration
04. flood tide
05. clocks, unwinding
06. gone home early (omid remix) [mp3]
07. palindromic tone (outputmessage remix)
08. migration (siamese sisters remix)
09. flood tide (yochannan remix)
10. clocks, unwinding (accident remix)
11. gone home early (deneir remix)
12. palindromic tone (patagonian remix)
13. migration (therefore remix)
14. flood tide (languis remix)
15. clocks, unwinding (anaphylaxis remix)

Press
“dreamy, soundtrack-y, delay and echo-laden ‘anti-guitar’ guitar pop.”- music (for robots)

With fans from Soul-Junk to underground hip-hop producer Omid, Patagonian twists old things into new. In his time-stretched hands words and tones invite re-examination.

All tracks arranged and produced by Patagonian
Mastered and Edited by Accident
Artwork by Jonathan Dueck and Tim McMullen

Track Listing
01. Hands in the Face of Time [mp3]
02. Sugar Coated [mp3]
03. Plastic Flamingos [mp3]
04. Dead Batteries [mp3]

Press
“Patagonian… delivers with brave solidity and a rare purposefulness, and 6 Lonely Tales of One Lonely Riot Grrrl is a fun exploration on the fringes of instrumental hip-hop.”- Ink 19