Carta blends all of the elements we at Silber loved about indie bands from the 1990s like Low, Tindersticks, Hood, & Piano Magic.  Slowcore.  Post rock.  Shoegaze.  They’re all & none of these things.  They’re Carta. ~ Brian John Mitchell, Silber Records

a brief history of Carta:

Carta originally formed in 2002 as a studio project having a revolving membership around Kyle Monday & Jason Perez.  In 2005 they recorded The Glass Bottom Boat with the band drifting into hiatus during a two-year search for a label (eventually released by Resonant in 2007).  By that time, the band had undergone a complete transformation, with all former members gone except for Kyle Monday & Ray Welter they regrouped with Oakland drummer Raj Ojha (who had just left electro-post-rock band Run Return) & bassist/guitarist Sacha Galvagna (Charles Atlas).  The new version of Carta began to write entirely new material rather than trying to re-work the old songs.

Originally planning two separate albums (one song-focused & another made up of more ambient experimental tracks), An Index of Birds emerged as a cohesive body of work from the disparate sessions recorded at different times & studios.  Cellist Alex Kort (ex-Subtle) returned to work on several of the songs & Lorealle Bishop took up the mantle as the band’s new female vocalist.  Former Continental drummer & Christopher Willits-collaborator Gabriel Coan mixed several tracks on the album, & eventually became Carta’s dedicated drummer.

Recorded & mixed by Carta, Sean Coleman, & Eli Crews (Deerhoof, Why?, Citay) & following the direction to ‘make things sound like they have been recovered from a sunken ship’, the result is an album that recalls the debut in feel but has both a more pastoral & more sinister tone.  Placing more importance on vocals this time out, “An Index Of Birds” was a dedicated attempt to move beyond the stereotyped post-rock idioms & investigate textures & composition.  Tiny electronic landscapes, soundtrack bombast, krautrock-inspired psychedelia, & brooding melodrama all find a home on an album you might hear on an ambulance ride that could end in salvation be it life or death.

Current news: Sacha Galvagna can also be heard with Charles Atlas on the  Up in the Air soundtrack, & Raj Ojha can also be heard playing drums with Howlin' Rain.
 

Carta Discography
Carta: An Index of Birds An Index of Birds
CD 2010 | Silber 077
13 tracks, 58 minutes
$12 ($14 international, $5 download (256 kbps, ~119 megs))
This is truly an album to cherish during those quiet moments when you need to relax after a troubling day, or just want to stare at the sunset or walk through the snowfall & reminisce about the times of your life when everything was alright with the world....
~ Jeff Penczak, Foxy Digitalis

A welcome new addition to the Silber family.  Carta reminds us of a ton of stuff we like from Low to Six by Seven to Plumerai to Charles Atlas & are in the tradition of all the mid 1990s moody pop/slowcore/indie rock/post rock bands we came of age to.

: Listen to the track Building Bridges
: Press release
: Reviews

Carta Links
Official Carta Website
Carta on MySpace