rafi bookstaber

 rafi bookstaber ~ late summer (woodsist, 2016)

“We’d like to welcome back our old friend Rafi Bookstaber. It’s all good... the immediate thing I felt when I jammed his Late Summer for the first time was wanting to hug life, cosmic love in the underground. 

“This is a diff kind of human digitata, it’s sweet analog. You dig spring reverb, then maybe flesh it with sum Ra-fi. Pure jam. Extended solos and explorations go from downtown woodland discord and eternal reverie to Relatively Clean Rivers and beat earth poetics. Pretty darlin’ indeed...

“What a vapor trail of music; very groovy to see folks finally catching up to this head. Dawn of a new vibration out of his occult pedigree in so many spaced out earth objects (Death Chants / Aswara / Von Himmel / Mendocino). Bookstaber also logged golden hours with Time-Lag and that deep scene. The beginning of an ear and golden spirit juice. Mined private press vision with his own Azriel and Humito imprints, shucked handmades~there’s also his groove and howl with the wolfpack in the MV / EE axis. Oxide, preserves and records…Rafi hummed the music of maidens. Iron Maiden this is not, shipbuilding it sails, four sail and many years ago I was there, so was Rafi’s fi. You dig, apache? Find some wampum, blow a journey, be here now for Late Summer eternal...” Matt “MV” Valentine

buy ~ listen

rafi bookstaber

 rafi bookstaber ~ still way (azriel, 2013)

"slow, sun-dazed feel to this beautiful set of rural rags, with strings set to maximum F/X dislocation, with the kind of underwater delay of a Scorces married to stoned folk stylings ala Pat Kilroy, Skip Spence, Dino Valente et al via Takehisa Kosugi." volcanic tongue

"omnipresent, patient meditations that are tethered to the breath permeate the head and heart with ease. earthly tones echo in the vastness as the sun-stroked body revels in gently flowing streams of loving kindness. for me, the art of Rafi Bookstaber is among the most prominent in contemporary folk/psych music. Still Way is analogous to watching heavenly light pass through a filament. the hues and textures comparable to Rafi's undulating tranquil stringed vibrations that caress the head. over both sides sparse passages slowly unfold before refracting in copious directions, circumscribing the body in benevolent energy. a member of Death Chants, the Wolfpack, Mendocino, and Aswara, Rafi's solo recordings on Azriel and Humito are some of the most trichome-covered in the honest bag healing kit. when one has to temporarily retreat from the moment, these vibrations provide a convalescent setting. Still Way will spin on repeat in the decks of those who enjoy Sandy Bull, Willie Lane and other like-minded travelers." honest bag

por fin...demasiado tiempo esperando esta cinta que tenía casi idealizada. pura belleza pastoril susurrada y suspendida en los mismos acordes de guitarra que Willie Lane. tan sólo dos mini canciones, 'sun stream' y 'stellar sky', pero sobre todo 'sun stream'. notas espectrales muy del universo Child of Microtones...aparecen, flotan, desaparecen. Rafi no decepciona nunca. 

sold out ~ download (gracias)

rafi bookstaber

rafi bookstaber ~ gossamer veil (azriel, 2007)

"Rafi Bookstaber's solo creations include a cassette of delicate acoustic guitar meditations, entitled "A Gossamer Veil. bedtime hymns, starlight ragas and bent blues for wood and wire and tape hiss."

sold out ~ download ~ interview with rafi

hoot owl

hoot owl ~ untitled cassette (azriel, 2011)

"treetop moon hollers and american primitive star gobbling, bedroom gagaku and cold hardy foole-jazz techniques. folk music for wherever arthur doyle or little howlin wolf were the ‘new’ pete seeger. bongos, voice, wood flute, triangle. screen printed nightime covers with hand lettered text, numbered edition of 112… new solo project from rafi bookstaber of death chants & aswara." time~ lag

"beautifully zonked collection of contemporary primitive folk song with a stoned cultic aspect that would realign the kinda communal ugh of the original Amon Duul collective with the kosmische Americana of Tower Recordings and the lucid Wildman-isms of Sir Arthur Doyle." volcanic tongue

foto: kelli eileen

buy ~ download

rafi bookstaber

rafi bookstaber ~ easy harmony (azriel, 2009)

"cassette private press solo release from rafi of death chants and aswara. more excellent smoked out late night sounds, muted bedroom folk-forms,  pure space folk. two side long tracks. lovely hand water colored heavy art paper covers, with hand written text. numbered edition of only 76 copies." time~lag records

  buy | download

(thanks davide aka polvere for the rip)

rafi bookstaber

rafi bookstaber ~ greener pastures lp (humito, 2011)

"an allez-taeia of the body, earth breath and sweetness, a great sigh beneath the world tree. an attempt this time to say a few things simply, and be gone. about letting go of places that are family, not holding on too tight, the condition of waking up one morning and suddenly finding yourself alive on this great green planet, surrounded by the infinite… gorgeous solo outing from death chants member rafi bookstaber, and the first release on his new humito label" time~lag

¡humito!, greener pastures, matt valentine & erika elder, willie lane, árbore (high moon), bronze horse... demasiado bonito para decir que es bonito. 'ain't nothing blues': hope sandoval meets child of microtones.

dibujo: seth neefus

sold out / download