Black Tape for a Blue Girls ethereal, mournful sound virtually defined the darkwave aesthetic of their label Projekt Records, a company owned and operated by the groups founder, composer and keyboardist Sam Rosenthal. Formed in 1983, Projekt was originally envisioned as an outlet for Rosenthals solo electronic music; upon relocating to California three years later, his music adopted a warmer, deeply personal sound heralded by the formation of Black Tape for a Blue Girl, which debuted in 1986 with The Rope. Where subsequent efforts including 1987s Mesmerized by the Sirens and its 1989 follow-up Ashes in the Brittle Air drew heavily on ambient soundscapes, the group — a revolving ensemble of performers that in addition to Rosenthal also at times included vocalists Oscar Herrera and Lucian Casselman, violinst Vicki Richards, clarinetist Richard Watson and cellist Mera Roberts — expanded into increasingly dense electronic textures over the course of records like 1991s A Chaos of Desire and 1993s This Lush Garden Within. After a three-year hiatus, Black Tape for a Blue Girl resurfaced in 1996 with the EP The First Pain to Linger, a disc packaged with a novel authored by Rosenthal; the full-length epic Remnants of a Deeper Purity appeared that same year, followed in 1998 by As One Aflame Laid Bare by Desire. Before the Buildings Fell appeared in early 2000.