After the San Francisco space rock unit Mirza disbanded, Steven R. Smith embarked on a solo career, building melancholy soundscapes with detailed layers of guitars and other instruments. Smith issued two albums in 1999, From Ashes Come and Autumn Is the End; the all-instrumental covers EP Death of Last Year's Man followed in 2000. Two years separated the EP from Lineaments, a lush instrumental album released on Emperor Jones in the summer of 2002, but Smith continued to work on other projects at the time. ~ Steve Huey