Eric Lanzillotta is sitting behind a counter on the wide-open top floor of Resolution Audio Video on Leary Way. He's surrounded by blackness; the walls, floor, ceiling and railing; even the half-filled CD shelves are black.

Lanzillotta's dark corner is the record store Dissonant Plane, which he opened in late November with his son Tanith, and it could not be more at odds with the rest of the floor, which is covered in light colors from ceiling to carpet.

The jarring visual split between Dissonant Plane and the rest of Resolution Audio seems fitting for a record store that takes seemingly every opportunity to go against the status quo.

Lanzillotta is opening Dissonant Plane at a time when a slumping economy is forcing business closures all over the country and the record business is suffering through an eight-year sales nosedive.

To further fight convention Dissonant Plane will focus its stock on metal, avant garde, experimental and classical music, among other genres, ignoring popular music almost entirely.

"It's all about presenting things we believe in," Lanzillotta said.

Lanzillotta said the store will stock what he and Tanith think is good music that other people will enjoy.

Record sales dropped by 36 percent from 2000 to 2007 and were down another 11 percent this year as of September, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

With Dissonant Plane's official grand opening on the horizon, three Ballard businesses - Bella's, All the Kings Flags and Annabelle's Consignment and Antiques - announced their closures in the first week of December.

Jason Hughes, owner of Sonic Boom Records, said the slumping music business has affected independent sellers and forced Sonic Boom to re-evaluate and reorganize. Sonic Boom closed its Fremont location last February and now operates only its Capitol Hill and Ballard locations.

Lanzillotta, who has been involved in the music business in various ways for 22 years - from starting a record label to publishing a magazine - said the state of the economy did not affect his decision to open the store.

"People are still interested in music no matter what the economic times," he said.

He said he was going to sell records for a living no matter what, either online or in a store, and when the opportunity to move into Resolution Audio appeared he took it.

He said the location in Ballard will help the store succeed because of the heavy foot traffic in the neighborhood.

Resolution Audio Video is a fitting site for Dissonant Plane because both businesses seek to appeal to audio enthusiasts, not casual listeners, said Lanzillotta.

The narrow focus of Dissonant Plane may help the store because the store will carry music that can't be found anywhere else in the area there is a demand for it, and Ballard's nearby Bop Street Records and Sonic Boom will serve as complementary record stores, rather than competition, according to Lanzillotta.

There is never one single thing a record store can do to ensure success, but Lanzillotta said he is attempting a handful of ideas to help the store succeed. He is making sure to stock vinyl records, currently experiencing a resurgence in popularity. He's also ensuring a strong Internet presence for the store with multiple Web sites and is planning on hosting in-store events.

Lanzillotta has been surprised by the number of people who've wandered into the store during the past few weeks to look through the store's still-arriving stock. But that's good news for a duo who decided to ignore conventional wisdom entirely and open a new venture during a dire time for the record business and the economy.