Carta

Carta is an American instrumental post-rock group from the United States, originally formed in San Francisco. The band starts in 2002 as a bedroom project led by Kyle Monday and Jason Perez, then grows over the next two years into a larger ensemble with a revolving cast of musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Line-up and collaborators

The first lineup around the band’s debut album includes Sarah Bell on keyboards, melodica, accordion and vocals; Ray Welter on bass, guitar and trumpet; Kyle Monday on guitar; Jason Perez on guitars, keyboard and piano; Sonny Culbertson on drums; Jared Matt Greenberg of Charles Atlas on trumpet, organ and piano; Sacha Galvagna of Charles Atlas on bass; and Alex Kort of Subtle on cello. The second album keeps Kyle and Ray on guitars and keyboards and Alex on cello, and adds Sacha Galvagna as permanent bassist, Raj Ojha on drums, and Lorealle Bishop on vocals. Gabriel Coan of Continental contributes treatments to several tracks, and later joins the group full time as drummer. The verified membership also includes Gabriel Coan and Alexander Kort.

Recordings

Carta’s first album, The Glass Bottom Boat, is produced by Eli Crews of Beulah and appears on the UK label Resonant in 2007. The record is described as balancing quieter and louder passages and as drawing on the sound of Piano Magic, Tarentel, Felt, Mogwai and Red House Painters. The second album, An Index of Birds, is issued by Silber Records and includes a remix of “Kavan” by The Declining Winter, the project of Richard Adams of Hood, which also appears on his album Haunt the Upper Hallways. The band’s third album, The Faults Follow, is released by Saint Marie Records in spring 2013.

Style

Carta works in post-rock and instrumental music, with ambient and experimental elements reflected in the group’s shifting line-ups and layered use of guitar, cello, brass, keyboards and vocals.