Seattle, early autumn. At Tower Records on "The Ave," Eric Cooley met Brad Haug by chance. There was no Faith & Disease yet, just a meeting that would give the band's story its beginning. Eric was already losing interest in his classes at Cornish College of the Arts. "I dared myself to get accepted, then once in, got bored," he says. Brad was 18, married, and the father of a baby boy. He also had a 4-track and an invitation: come write and record some songs. Soon, the two were talking about forming a band. Eric suggested Faith & Disease, a name with the evocative drama of Love and Rockets or Christian Death but wasn't quite sold on his own idea. It sounded a little pretentious. Brad liked it. The name stuck, even as the two eventually lost touch. "We haven't spoken in years, but the fact is: the name wouldn't exist had it not been for Brad," Eric says.

Before long, two more guitarists became part of the story: Steven Knouse, who had played with Eric in an earlier band called Neurotic Party — a group Eric would later remember as “naïvely awful,” except for Steve’s playing — and Patrick Hogan, a friend of a friend of Brad’s. Through the cold nights of late fall, the early lineup gathered in a small Lynnwood cottage, staying up into the early morning hours while they captured song ideas on Brad’s 4-track. Then, as winter settled in, Dara Rosenwasser arrived at practice after being recommended by Jena, Patrick Hogan’s girlfriend. The band already had a handful of rough instrumentals, and when Dara tried singing on “Poverty Assaults the Ego,” a piece Eric had written, everything seemed to fall into place. Eric later remembered Dara as the “perfect fit” in every way. On Jan. 16, 1991, the night the Gulf War broke out, the band recorded a burst of songs with Dara, including “Cozy-Green Dome,” “Poverty Assaults the Ego,” “Content Injuries,” “Metallic Cat,” “Chandra’s Lament,” and “Paper Image.” Those recordings would later circulate on the bootleg known as The Cottage Years.

Still in their late teens and early 20s, and only two months after forming, this the original F&D lineup played their first "show" on March 2, 1991. It was a friends-only house party at their practice space: Brad's grandmother's cottage in Lynnwood. With a drum machine sardonically nicknamed "Mr. Compliancy," the band played everything they had tracked on 4-track, plus "Lather," an obscure Jefferson Airplane cover about turning 30. At that point, Brad and Dara were still sharing vocal duties, though that setup wouldn't last long.

Their first public live show came soon after at Seattle's Ditto Tavern, a small downtown venue tucked beneath the rumble of the monorail. Plenty of early Seattle bands had played there, including Soundgarden, and F&D arrived with their own small but loyal group of fans in the room. The set apparently made an impression: the grumpy bar owner described their slow, gloomy set akin to a "funeral dirge."

Soon after, Ric Hare, also known as Rick Allen, and a friend and co-worker of Dara's at Cafe Brusseau's in Edmonds, joined the group and fit in immediately. Mr. Compliancy was out of work. Around the same time, Patrick Hogan and Brad Haug left F&D, leaving the band as a four-piece: Dara, Eric, Steve, and Rick. (On a side note: Brad would briefly rejoin about 10 years later for a string of shows.

Eric and Dara also invited Prayers for the Raven keyboardist John Clough to play a series of shows. "He was a perfect fit for us," Eric recalled. "John looked great and was very easy to work with. That's his piano and keys on 'Igloo.'" He recorded a few songs and played a handful of live shows after Brad left, but he was committed to his band and we respected that." Eventually, F&D found a permanent keyboardist in Joaquin Tavares, a transplant from Mexico City who would become a cornerstone of the band's trademark sound on Beauty and Bitterness, Livesongs: Third Body, and especially Fortune His Sleep. "Dara and I placed an ad in The Stranger, and he was the first — and only — person we met with," Eric remembered. "We met him at Capitol Hill's Cafe Paradiso and he was like a long-lost friend. The stars aligned on that one."

The lineup kept growing from there. The band added Mary Brommel of In Gowan Ring on backing vocals, and both Mary and Joaquin made their F&D live debut at The Re-Bar on Feb. 6, 1992.

Following their Bumbershoot appearance, local commercial radio station KNDD 107.7 fm “The End” invited Eric, Dara, and Steve in the studio to be featured on “The Young and the Restless.”

Before long, F&D were back in the studio, revisiting songs that had first taken shape during those cottage rehearsals. Those new recordings became their debut release, the Moon Tints of Purple and Pearl EP. The band then returned to Hanszek Audio and kept building on that momentum, recording material that would later appear on two 7" singles from small indie labels: “Igloo”/“Voltaire's Vallerie” on Siren Song, and “Jardeau Blue”/“Crown of Sorrow” on AIDA House Records, which reached #35 on the November 1993 Singles/Short Vinyl charts in Vancouver, BC's CITR 101.9fm. At this time, Cooley wrote lyrics for “Voltaire's Vallerie” and “Crown of Sorrow” while Rosenwasser wrote “Igloo” and “Jardeau Blue.” “Dara wrote more of the lyrics as we developed. That was fine by me, she was an excellent writer; I was too busy arranging and producing anyway,” says Eric. Some of that same creative push also carried into the group's first full-length CD. Which leads us to…

By this time, Seattle had become a magnet for major-label scouts, all of them circling the city in search of the next Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Faith & Disease started to feel that attention, too. After a generous feature in Alternative Press, letters of interest arrived from Atlantic Records, MCA Records, TVT Records, and others. Eric recalled: "That was exciting, but we kept thinking, they do know we are not a grunge band, right? We answered every letter, but without management or representation, nothing came of it." Then Ivy Records entered the story.

Eric had met David Goebel at the newly opened Seattle club The Weathered Wall, and the two quickly became close friends. After a while, David floated an idea: he would start a record label, and Faith & Disease would be its first signed act. Eric and Dara were intrigued, but cautious. They worried Ivy might be dismissed as a vanity label rather than the credible next step the band needed. "I downplayed my involvement from day one," Eric said. "And even though Ivy was basically run by David, me, and Dara, we kept that ambiguous."

Most of Beauty and Bitterness was recorded, engineered, and mixed at Hanzsek Audio, where Chris Hanzsek proved to be the right guide for the band's first real studio experience. For most of them, it was their first time working in a professional recording studio, and Chris brought a steady, mentor-like presence to the sessions. "I learned a lot from those early sessions," Eric said.

Beauty and Bitterness was released on Oct. 8, 1993, with a sold-out CD-release show at, fittingly, The Weathered Wall. Copies went out to radio and press, and almost immediately the album began to find an audience. To the band's surprise, it charted on local alternative station KEXP 90.3 FM, then known as KCMU 90.3 FM, appearing on the Heavy Rotation, Audience Response, and Northwest charts.

F&D hired Ballard’s Underground Productions to shoot a promotional video for “Emalee,” renting out The Weathered Wall for two days. It premiered on Friday, May 15th on KTZZ-FOX Ch 22 as part of Frank Harlan’s Bombshelter Videos, a showcase of Pacific Northwest music videos and live performances, alongside Soundgarden, Hammerbox, Tad, The Purdins, and more.

Around the same time, the F&D lineup of Dara, Eric, Steve, Ric, Mary, and Joaquin moved briefly to the “Blue Room” a proper practice space on Capitol Hill located around the corner from Seattle musician hangout The Comet Tavern. “Mia Zapata was a bartender there, I remember her,” recalls Eric. After the Blue Room stint, the band moved into a rehearsal space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, where much of the next record would begin to take shape. Faith & Disease had the corner room, which they shared with Prayers for The Raven/Laudanum. To one side was a room shared by Hole and Native (Patti Smith Group guitarist Ivan Král); to the other, a room shared by Nirvana and The Posies. “That’s how it was back then,” Eric said. “Talk about a tight-knit community of musicians.” From an interview with Dara and Eric in the Oct 3, 2003 issue of ChainDLK: “We were elbow to elbow with all those bands … No big deal at the time but interesting now. We’d pass Kurt Cobain and company in the hallway, that is how small Seattle was at the time.” Eric reflects, “We played all the same clubs as those Sub-Pop and Grunge bands did, and even though we had a darker, artier crowd than say, TAD or 7 Year Bitch, there wasn’t really a fence between bands. Despite the trimmings, we were (and still are) basically a rock band with drums, bass, guitar, vocals, and keyboards.”

One artifact from that period offered a revealing snapshot of the scene: Sixth Form, a fanzine Eric edited to chronicle Faith & Disease and the tight circle of friends and bands around them, including Quiverpuss, Mary Throwing Stones, Beads of Mercury, Ring, Maxine, 66 Saints, Vertigo Bus, Ninth Circle, and a very early Harvey Danger.

The band's follow-up to Beauty and Bitterness would open a new chapter, one shaped by personal change, a subtle shift in direction...

While Fortune His Sleep was taking shape, Ivy Records’ David Goebel dreamed up an all-ages show at the 1,800-seat King Theater to spotlight the label. Eric dubbed it “Genre-fest,” with a companion CD of hand-picked Seattle artists. As Indienet put it: “While Seattle is best known for its grunge explosion, Ivy Records wanted to highlight another facet of the city’s music culture — a softer, darker, and more eclectic style that contrasted with the loud, aggressive grunge sound,” Genre-Fest: A Northwest Comp-Elation Volume One brought together Northwest soft pop, twangy rock, dream pop, goth, and folk-influenced tracks, though Ivy wouldn’t release it for another three years. Eric remembers it as a collection of friends’ bands: pre-fame Harvey Danger, Gordon Raphael (later a producer for The Strokes and others) & Anne Hadlock, Hominy (featuring Jesse Sykes), Melody Unit, labelmates Ninth Circle, Chris & Carla of The Walkabouts, Kill Switch...Klick, and neighboring Tacoma dream-pop band Ring. Looking back years later, Eric admitted: “Good material, but thematically, it didn’t work. The bands were too disparate, and I was glad to get back to focusing solely on F&D.”

The shows, though, got off to a promising start. The first was a triple bill with Faith & Disease, fellow oddballs Diamond Fist Werny, and industrial act Kill Switch…Klick. It nearly sold out, a good sign for what might come next, and a reminder that F&D could now draw a solid crowd at home in Seattle, WA.

But from the outset, the band was intent on growing awareness and a fan base outside of their hometown Seattle. From an interview with Lucid Vein from April 1995, when asked “How is the response in Seattle?” Dara responded: “We’ve received letters from Australia, France, Italy, Spain and others. We’ve had airplay in Italy, France, Lithuania, Israel, Germany and Australia. That’s bizarre! Not to mention over 15 different radio stations across the U.S. From the beginning Eric and I really put a conscious effort to getting a response and reaction from people outside of Seattle because I knew this wasn’t strictly a Seattle sound.”

Fortune His Sleep, their follow-up, was the most esoteric album of their career. “It was not going to be another Beauty and Bitterness,” Eric promised. The band hired violinist Rob MacKusick, classically trained vocalist Suzanne Allee (from nearby Cornish College of the Arts), and utilized instruments like skin drums, bells, Tibetan Rain Stick, acoustic guitars, and chamber music-inspired organ. Joaquin Tavares played a major role in the overall scope of the album; his composition “Wallow” became a regular show-opener, as were his keys on “Ashes are Burning.”

As Fortune His Sleep took shape, so did the “Faith & Disease” house, a turn-of-the-century 6-bedroom house under a canopy of trees on Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, which became their unofficial headquarters, drawing fans and friends into the band’s orbit. Downstairs, in the basement rehearsal space, much of the album found its final form. Upstairs, a main-floor room served as Ivy Records’ D.I.Y. office, where the work of getting the music out into the world fell to Eric, David, Dara, and whoever could lend a hand. They stuffed envelopes, booked shows, made phone calls, and coordinated with distributors such as NAIL, Projekt, and Metropolis. CDs and other inventory waited to be shipped, while posters and CD artwork took shape. Under one roof, the music and the everyday work of keeping an independent band going came together.

Eric and Dara’s shared vision for a sparse, esoteric, and non-conventional instrumentation body of music wasn’t particularly welcomed by original drummer Ric Hare (aka Rick Allen). After a live performance on The Spud Goodman Show, and midway through recording, Ric left, and was immediately replaced by Josh Furman, 17, a student at nearby Cornish College. “Ric and I really clicked as a rhythm section — we basically learned our instruments at the same time; I’ve never had a connection like that with a drummer, never will again,” added Eric. (Guitarists Steve Knouse and Ric later formed a band called The Curtains, and released a full-length entitled Tape.)

The Fortune His Sleep CD Release party and US release date took place on November 26 at The OK Hotel in Seattle, with classical guitarist Rick Sabo as the opener. The setlist: Wallow / Witches / Fortune His Sleep / Violet / Emalee / Louise / Jardeau Blue / Amelius Unhappy / Ashes are Burning / Memorium / Crown of Sorrow / Madrigal / Space Song / Encore: Igloo.

Fortune His Sleep kicks off with “Healing Anne,” an 8-minute opus with Tavares’ Romantic-period intro that warns the listener this is not another Beauty and Bitterness, and morphs into a recognizable F&D format. “Hashivenu” is a 6,000-year-old Hebrew prayer, with violinist Rob MacKusick making his debut accompanied by Dara and Suzanne Allee harmonizing beautifully. “Wallow” is next, with only Tavares and Dara featured. The title track follows, with Eric’s melodic bassline mixing fluidly with conga percussion courtesy of Josh Furman and a rain stick intro. Of the album’s first six tracks, only two feature a conventional drum kit. “Jardeau Blue,” “Amelius Unhappy,” and “Madrigal” — favorite F&D rockers — manage to bring the band back to earth.

The goth segment loved Fortune His Sleep. In a review from Propaganda Magazine #21, editor Fred Berger exclaimed: “Faith & Disease have just released the best CD of the decade.” And overall mainstream alternative critics, once again, were largely favorable. AllMusic Guide's Ned Raggett: “With a slight band lineup change — Joshua Furman took over on drums from Allen — Faith and Disease built on the strengths of its debut with an equally accomplished sophomore effort. A lovely cover and excellent overall recording quality assist it immeasurably. The band's self-production, with help from Chris Hanzsek, is one of its hidden strengths not fully appreciated until hearing the results. Rosenwasser's again simply captivating voice, Cooley's bass playing sounds even more fluid and inspiring than before and returning members Knouse and Tavares further help the band's own identity stand clearer.”

Exposé Online (Dane Carlson) describes Fortune His Sleep as “dark, gloomy, and beautiful” in a Dead Can Dance‑like vein, with influences from Eastern, folk, and gothic rock. He singles out Healing Anne's eight‑minute length and Cure‑style rock energy. The review emphasizes the band's eclectic influences and “wonderful music” that keeps listeners engaged. Sonic‑Boom.com added: “They [Faith & Disease] are more concerned with the mood and emotion evoked by the music than fashion, egos, or looking cool. This simple fact alone makes them much better artists in my eyes. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the music is so darn appealing.”

Another busy year for F&D. They found time to film a video for the Fortune His Sleep track “Madrigal.” Produced by Underground Productions, it was shot once again at their unofficial home, The Weathered Wall. Like the band’s earlier video, it aired on Seattle’s music video program Bombshelter Videos, this time alongside a promo spot for The Trading Musician featuring Eric, Dara, and violinist Rob Mackusick. By September, they were taking Fortune His Sleep on the road. The Fortune His Sleep Western US Tour kicked off Sept 8 at Seattle’s Tractor, then wound through Missoula, MT, Salt Lake City, UT, Colorado Springs, CO, Mesa, AZ, and Santa Barbara, CA. In Los Angeles, CA, they played a packed Troubadour with Love Spirals Downward and Trance to the Sun, followed by two stops in San Francisco, CA. On Oct 14, they were back in Seattle, wrapping up at the Ok Hotel with Human Drama opening. Speaking of drama, the year wasn’t done with them yet: as ‘95 drew to a close, more changes and activity awaited F&D.

The Fortune His Sleep era gave way to a busy new chapter for Faith & Disease: three albums in three years before a move to a new label. First came Livesongs: Third Body, a live album that kept the band's story unfolding on Ivy Records. Seven of its 11 tracks were previously unreleased originals later recorded in the studio for Insularia; only "Ashes Are Burning," "Fortune His Sleep II," and "Healing Anne" had already appeared as studio recordings. Livesongs was generally well received, though its cover — a grainy sepia-toned photograph taken by Eric and Dara of a South Seattle horse barn with weathervane — departed from the esoteric artwork fans expected. "The strange thing about that barn is, there were these sad, genteel horses put out to pasture inside the stable, and not long after we took that photo, we drove by and it had burned to the ground," Eric recalls. The site is now a strip mall.

When Livesongs: Third Body arrived in the summer of 1996, it shared the spotlight with a release from Ivy's newest signing, Ninth Circle. The connection between the two bands would prove lasting: five years later, Ninth Circle guitarist Greg Forschler would join F&D. Reviews of Livesongs were favorable, with a January issue of Discorder Magazine capturing its atmosphere perfectly: "Listening to Livesongs: Third Body is akin to being immersed in a dark, warm sea — slightly scary, but still comforting."

That summer, the two bands carried their shared momentum south to Portland, Oregon, where both had been invited to perform at the prestigious North by Northwest Music Festival. "We loved Ninth Circle and were paired with them often because we shared a label, but by then we were beginning to move away from that icy, darkwave goth sound." Their paths soon diverged: Ninth Circle never released a follow-up, and singer Kelly Williams eventually moved to Japan.

Around the same time, vocalist and flautist Charlotte Sather, a music major at Western Washington University, joined the band. Her voice blended seamlessly with Dara's, and she performed with F&D on select dates scheduled around her classes.

The months that followed brought a burst of activity, with both full-band shows and intimate duo performances by Eric and Dara. Faith & Disease even found a way onto the bill at Seattle's popular annual Folklife Festival: they entered under the name "Memorium" and submitted a demo made up entirely of the band's acoustic recordings. "Kinda sneaky," Eric laughs, "but it worked." Soon they were traveling up and down the West Coast for a string of dates with Trance to the Sun, the Santa Barbara band led by Ashkelon Sain. "Ash and I were like brothers for a while, two kindred spirits obsessively guiding our indie bands," Eric recalled. Another memorable invitation followed when F&D opened for Low on the band's first U.S. tour, with Jesse Sykes of Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter sitting in on guitar. "Alan Sparhawk gave us his blessing after the show; that made our year." Even amid their busy schedule, the band began shaping its next studio album, conceived as a follow-up to Fortune His Sleep. Eric and Dara chose John & Stu's, located in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood at 4230 Leary Way NW, operated by John Goodmanson and Stuart Hallerman. John & Stu's (AKA Triangle Recording, Reciprocal Recording, Word of Mouth Studios, and currently the Hall of Justice) was a major hub for Seattle's alternative music scene, producing recordings for the Jack Endino and Nirvana Love Buzz and Bleach sessions, Harvey Danger, Modest Mouse, Sleater‑Kinney, and Blonde Redhead. After seeing the Walkabouts perform, Dara and Eric invited Chris Eckman and Carla Torgerson into the studio; Torgerson contributed to "Violet," while Eckman appeared on "Perhaps Persephone." In one of the sessions' turns, engineer Kevin Suggs added pedal steel guitar to "Old Dusk Dakota," Dara's song about her rural birthplace of Roseau, Minnesota. Its folkier, Cowboy Junkies–meets–Mojave 3 atmosphere did not win over Ivy label boss David Goebel, who dismissively called it "country."

"Marie Don't Sleep in Your Makeup," a song penned by Dara and Eric, featuring Eric's looping bassline and Steve Knouse's impressive guitar work, is a 7:24 opus broken up into two distinctive parts. The song is currently the most listened to F&D song in their catalog, with over 202,000 monthly plays on Spotify. "Birthday Party" was a late addition in the sessions, a track Eric wrote based on a personal experience; "Yellow Dress" and "Perhaps Persephone" (the first F&D track with a ¾ drum pattern) are classic Dara Rosenwasser lyrics, while "Space Song" explores a psychedelic guitar wash courtesy of Steven Knouse. "Baudelaire" and "Cocoon" round out the minimalist tracks Eric and Dara were so fond of during this era. Insularia also marks the beginning of Eric Cooley moving from bass to more guitar ("Baudelaire," "Cocoon," "Birthday Party") that would later characterize most of Beneath the Trees, Dream the Red Clouds, and Passport to Kunming. "I Come and Stand at Every Door," an acapella number by Rosenwasser, would later become a live staple during their 1998, 1999 and 2001 US tours. Charlotte Sather makes her debut on Insularia, with a stunning flute track on "Cocoon" and backing vocals on "I Come and Stand at Every Door." This is also the first (and only) album solely credited to Joshua Furman on percussion and drums. Cooley plays a vintage Hammond B-3 organ on "Birthday Party." "It was there in the studio, how could I not play it?" Cooley recalls.

Insularia was recorded on 2" Quantegy analog tape, mixed by Eric and Kevin at Avast, and then professionally mastered by Ross Nyberg at Nyberg Mastering. It was released on February 3rd, 1998 with an accompanying CD-release party on Friday, February 6 at Sit & Spin, Seattle (with pals Diamond-Fist Werny), and Saturday Feb 7 at The Paris Theater in neighboring city Portland, OR. Reviews were almost unanimously positive, according to the Lollipop Magazine review by Rowan Morrison — Faith & Disease's fourth full-length album “intertwines delicate female crooning with gloom tipped, tantalizing string arrangements evoking the ethereal heydays of 4AD.” Adding that the album's songwriting is “tighter than ever.” CMJ New Music Weekly #560 from March 1998, Colin Helms praised the album for its “dynamic restraint, sonic ambiance and gentle melodicism as the primary components of its musical blueprint. Led by the strong, unwavering voice of Dara Rosenwasser, the band follows the lead of fellow music-to-nod-off-to notables Spain, Low or Mazzy Star in the design of its minimal, downtempo pieces. Faintly outlined blues and country structures inform most of the songs here, washed over by ghostly reverbed guitar and Rosenwasser's angelic vocals. With the addition of some equally dreamy violin, pedal steel, organ and flute touches, the album takes on an aura of quiet, abstract beauty. ‘Perhaps...Persephone’ showcases Rosenwasser's sensual tone, her haunting delivery lifted by some slowly winding guitar and a billowing dust storm of violin and percussion.” And The Big Takeover #45 wrote: “They're probably one of the best bands out there doing this kind of thing — ethereal, chorale-type music with exquisite female vocals and minimal chamber ensemble instrumental backup.”

Insularia also marked the end of an era for the lineup. Guitarist Steve Knouse and percussionist Joshua Furman both departed after the album, with Furman moving on to the psychobilly band the Spectres and Knouse joining the pop-wave band the Panoramics. In their place, Dara and Eric brought in drummer Barry Semple, with Josh Van Winkle occasionally filling in. The lineup expanded once more when guitarist Greg Forschler joined for the 2001 and 2003 U.S. tours. During the summer of 1998, Faith & Disease set out on their first US tour lasting more than a month, joining their good friends Trance to the Sun for a coast-to-coast trek in a van during the hottest months of the year. "Baton Rouge was basically a sauna," Eric remembers. "We had some great shows, like Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, and Cleveland, and some not so good shows, but overall, it was a great experience." When I tell people we traveled 10,000 miles in a van in August and September with six people — me, Dara, Charlotte, plus Ingrid Blue, Ashkelon Sain, and Joaquin from Trance to the Sun — and all our equipment, often driving ALL NIGHT after a show to make it to the next city, people are amazed. I'm amazed we pulled it off. Ingrid and I were joking about it recently, and we agreed: How did we do that?" On the road, this adventurous F&D lineup featured Dara on vocals and guitar, Eric moving among bass, guitar, keyboards, and percussion, and Charlotte shifting between vocals, flute, keyboards, and percussion as each song required. The following summer, F&D set out once more, launching the full-scale Lamentations Tour on July 27, 1999, in Portland, Oregon, and carrying it through September 12 at The Joint in Los Angeles. This time, the three-piece lineup of Eric, Charlotte, and Dara traveled without a support act, shouldering the entire journey themselves. By the final show, the band had crossed nearly the whole country, played almost every major U.S. city, and played all but three states in the continental United States. On October 14, 1999, Faith & Disease brought their Ivy Records chapter to a close with Lamentations: A Collection. The 16-track retrospective gathered songs from the band's first four Ivy releases and offered one final piece, "Summer's Fade," recorded especially for the collection. As Dara put it, in an interview with The Ninth Wave #7: "This [Lamentations] is our closure CD. It archives an important growth period (both musically and emotionally). Eric and I are now, and always have been, the heart of Faith & Disease. We've done well in establishing ourselves in the U.S.A., U.K. and Europe … if it ended tomorrow, I wouldn't regret a single moment." Before long, another door opened: after sharing a bill with Black Tape for a Blue Girl at the Seattle stop of their U.S. tour, F&D signed a two-record deal with Projekt Records. The band turned its attention back to the studio. Eric secured an endorsement deal with Quantegy for its GP9 analog tape, and F&D chose Avast Studios in the Seattle neighborhood of Greenwood, once again bringing in Kevin Suggs to engineer the sessions. As the 1990s faded, Faith & Disease stood at the threshold of a new chapter — armed with a new label, a growing collection of songs, and renewed optimism about what the coming decade might bring.

The Ivy years ended on the road from December 15–29, as Faith & Disease embarked on the 1999 Lamentations West Coast Winter Tour, an addendum to the summer tour, closing out the decade before turning toward their first album for Projekt. Then came the much-anticipated Year 2000 problem (Y2K), which proved anticlimactic. With that behind them, Eric and Dara began planning their Projekt debut. The songs first took shape as demos at Kill Switch…Klick's dA Sebastain's home studio; most of those recordings would eventually surface as bonus tracks on the 25th Anniversary edition of Beneath the Trees. For the album itself, they chose another Stu Hallerman studio, Avast Studio in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood, with Kevin Suggs once again at the helm. By then, he was more than a familiar engineer. "He was part of our team, so to speak, at that point," Eric said. "We fully put our trust in him, and he never let us down." An endorsement deal with Quantegy GP9 2" audio tape gave the sessions a practical boost: the band received tape in exchange for crediting Quantegy in the liner notes. "That was awesome," Eric recalled. "We could allocate more of our recording budget to the studio." Inside Avast, the approach had changed, too. Rather than build around a conventional full-band lineup, F&D worked from the nucleus of Dara, Eric, and Charlotte. Dara shared vocal duties with flautist Charlotte, while Eric took on the producer and arranger role and played the bulk of the guitar and bass. Around that core, familiar collaborators and guests brought their own textures: Barry Semple on drums, Nancy Wharton on cello, and John Clough on keys and piano, with Greg Forschler contributing guitar to "This Part of Fortune Lies" and Jim Sykes adding an overdub to "If I Drink from This Cup." And just as pedal steel had opened an unexpected door on Insularia's "Old Dusk Dakota," another instrument led them somewhere unusual. Accomplished mandolin player Don Amburn joined them for the traditional murder ballad "Banks of the Ohio," whose story follows a man who kills the woman who refuses his marriage proposal. Eric added guitar and organ, but there were no drums. Even within a catalog built on unexpected turns, the recording remains the band's most unusual song. Dara brought another twist to the song by telling its story from the man's point of view, a choice that echoed her take on "Louise" back on Beauty and Bitterness. The connection to an older musical tradition did not go unnoticed: Rate Your Music reviewers noted that "Banks of the Ohio" was one of two songs on the album that paid homage to traditional Americana and the archetypal death ballad, alongside the Cooley-penned "Born and Died on the 23rd" and "this gives the track a distinct narrative and historical flavor, contrasting with the more mystical or dreamy pieces like 'Rubina Verde' or 'Mayim.' The song's delicate sound sculpture and restrained instrumentation are described as tasteful and sensitive, fitting the album's overall serene but edgy flow."

With the basic tracks and overdubs completed by the end of summer of 2000, Kevin and Eric mixed Beneath the Trees at Avast, transferred to Quantegy 1" tape, and mastered by Rick Fisher, a long time Seattle based mastering engineer at RFI Mastering (current, RAF Mastering). Projekt set a September 26, 2000 release date, leaving Eric and Dara time for a change few people expected: a move to San Luis Obispo on California's Central Coast. "No one saw that one coming," Eric recalled. They wanted a fresh start, and without a full band tying them to Seattle, the move was possible. Faith & Disease now revolved around Eric, Dara, and Charlotte, who stayed in Bellingham to finish her degree at Western Washington University. When Beneath the Trees arrived, the music press welcomed it warmly. Writing in Alternative Press Magazine, Mark Burbey drew a connection to the collection that had closed the band's previous chapter: "Faith & Disease's Lamentations, was an excellent collection of songs representing eight years of creative growth. Though an ideal introduction to the band's many moods and colors, it lacks the cohesive tone and texture of a new release. Beneath The Trees has that cohesiveness, like a slow, waking dream of cool warmth that keeps building upon itself. With few exceptions, Eric Cooley composes the music, and Dara Rosenwasser writes the lyrics, and it's Rosenwasser's child-sweet vocals that light the way. Giving clarity to the murk of melancholy and memory, Trees has the goth ambience of lying in the shade, contemplating a parade of centuries. The poignancy of Cooley's largely acoustic compositions and the story-telling poetry of Rosenwasser's lyrics speak of the ebb and flow of the light and the dark." His review closed on an equally intimate image: "each song is as good as the last, like a memory of lying beneath a tree with someone you love." For some fans, Beneath the Trees became the band's finest release. They singled out its "immaculate production" and the restraint in Rosenwasser's delivery, noting that she "never over sings." Back in Seattle, David Slatton of The Stranger offered his own reflection on the album on October 5, 2000: "It's impossible for Seattle's favorite ethereal band to be any more melancholy, but none of their previous four albums feel as personal or vulnerable as Beneath the Trees. Starting with a reinterpreted aria by Handel and culminating in the mournful 'Born and Died on the 23rd' (in tragic D minor), F&D weave a touching, almost thematic album that really captures the intimacy of their live performances. Eric Cooley's arrangements are minimalist, simply supporting Dara Rosenwasser's delicate and passionate voice, especially on 'Rubina Verde,' where she almost sounds like a wounded angel." Because Eric and Dara were in California, Charlotte and Barry and Nancy in Seattle, there never was an official Seattle CD-Release party for Beneath the Trees, rather a summer 2001 Beneath the Trees US Summer Tour was in the planning stages. Eric and Dara met up with video producer Mark McGuire at his TV studio in Burbank, CA and began filming the “This Part of Fortune Lies / Stray” video. Filmed along the scenic coastline of Morrow Bay, CA in addition to footage at Dara and Eric's house located at 370 Ramona Ave in Grover Beach, CA. Because Charlotte was away at school, the third member in the video playing keyboards in some shots, is played by Mark's wife, Trish.

In the fall of 2000, F&D were invited to headline the sixth annual Convergence Music Festival, with Seattle, WA, chosen as that year's host city. And then in December, while still rooted in San Luis Obispo, promoted Beneath the Trees with stops in Los Angeles, Anaheim, Long Beach, and Phoenix. By the start of 2001, Eric and Dara were ready for a pause. Faith & Disease had played 168 live shows since its inception, including 61 in just two years. But the break brought an unexpected return: founding member Brad Haug — also known as Brad Faith and Bradley Newton Haug — traveled to their Central Coast home and began rehearsing with them. Before long, another unlikely lineup was taking shape. Dara and Eric invited locals Great Ocean, a local instrumental guitar-and-drums duo, to join him, Dara, and Brad at their practice space. Together, they worked out a set for a one-of-a-kind F&D show at the Railroad Café in San Luis Obispo, CA, on May 26, 2001, reported by the SLO Times. "It worked," Eric recalls. "It was in this quaint café located next to the train tracks, and I was reading a lot of Jack Kerouac at the time, and he worked as a brakeman there briefly in 1953." Brad stayed for a few more shows, including a live on-air performance on KEXP 90.3fm's The Live Room on June 16, 2001. His repertoire of piano, guitar, and keyboards suited F&D's ever-shifting lineup. For Abe Beeson's popular Live Room session, though, the room was full: Eric, Dara, Charlotte, and Barry Semple were joined by Nancy on cello, Brad on guitar, and John Clough on keys. The next day, the lineup narrowed to four as Dara, Charlotte, Eric, and guitarist Greg Forschler set out on the 2001 U.S. tour. Beginning June 17, the month-long journey ended July 17 with a sold-out show in Salt Lake City. Along the way, a night at Chicago's Metro hosted by Scary Lady Sarah became a highlight, as did a packed show in the border town of Laredo, TX. The response there was so exuberant that the band nearly sold out of the merchandise meant to last the rest of the tour. For all those memorable nights, Eric remembers small signs that a chapter was drawing to a close: "I didn't know that'd be our last major-scale US tour, but there were small indicators along the way that hinted at it. I remember times sensing that Dara, even with Charlotte as a cohort, was a little overwhelmed by the demands of performing night after night on tour. We had been at it for a nearly a decade, and I think we all felt like it wasn't progressing to the next level as everyone had expected." The band closed its live calendar for 2001 on August 21 at Seattle's El Corizon, sharing a bill with Twin Peaks' voice Julee Cruise. A live recording of "Rubina Verde" from that night is available as a bonus track on the 25th Anniversary edition of Beneath the Trees. Plans for their next Projekt album were already taking shape, but another project would come first: a collaboration with a local composer Eric and Dara had long admired …

Before the next Projekt album, a connection made at a Seattle show led Faith & Disease somewhere new. Dara and Eric first met Jeff Greinke when Black Tape for a Blue Girl invited F&D onto the bill at the Seattle stop of their U.S. tour. By then, Greinke had already spent two decades building his reputation as an ambient composer; his extensive discography would eventually span more than four decades. Eric also knew his work in Land, a project with Ministry/King Crimson drummer Bill Reiflin (d. 2024) and Sky Cries Mary vocalist Anisa Romero. A few years after that first meeting, Dara and Eric arrived at Greinke's Another Room studio with new material they had prepared as a possible foundation for their forthcoming Projekt album. Their shared Seattle music background and mutual respect made the collaboration feel less like a formal undertaking than a natural next step. Eric describes the process as "seamless and natural." Over about a month, they recorded Eric's guitar and bass and Dara's vocals, then left Greinke to complete the sound design, rhythms, engineering, and mixing.

What began as material for the next F&D album took on a life of its own. Eric pitched the recordings to the Italian avant-garde label Weird Amplexus, which immediately agreed to release them. He remembers it as "the easiest pitch I've ever done." With Projekt label boss Sam Rosenthal's approval — Greinke also had releases on Projekt — the project moved ahead. Greinke added "One September," featuring Cooley on guitar, to the four-song EP; the piece would appear again a few years later on Greinke's Wide View album. For the title, they turned to a line Dara had written for the opening track, "How Far Does the Sky Go?": Dream the Red Clouds. Weird Amplexus released the EP in Europe on July 22, 2002, with packaging as unusual as the collaboration itself: CD-sized and LP-sized sleeves, with a standard CD and striking 10" red vinyl. The release found an appreciative niche audience. One detailed published review awarded it 8/10, praising the dark ambient atmosphere, distinctive packaging, and blend of Rosenwasser's ethereal vocals with Greinke's sound design. That Polish-language review, published by ArtRock.pl, called it "very good" and "strongly recommended," while Discogs rated it 3.92/5.

For all its artistic success, Dream the Red Clouds remained a studio collaboration, with no live performance of the EP planned. Soon after recording, Dara and Eric returned home to San Luis Obispo, CA. But another unexpected journey to a distant land lay ahead, one that began with an invitation, took a turn when that invitation was withdrawn, and ultimately gave them something to build on …

In progress, coming soon, check back periodically.

In progress, coming soon, check back periodically.