Description

Mountains music is defined by slow builds, and subtle transformations, textures and melodic lines that evolve in a variety of ways to create grand soundscapes and acutely detailed compositions. For Centralia the duo of Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg wrote and recorded in a way that mirrors the pace of their music. While the current trend in experimental music is towards hyperprolificity, Mountains have taken their time on Centralia, resulting in an album that is as precise as it is boundless.

Holtkamp and Anderegg approached the album layer by layer, throughout much of the record combining purely-acoustic recordings with purely-electronic sounds rather than using electronics to manipulate acoustic source material. Guitar, cello, organs, electric piano, and more are seamlessly combined with modular electronics, synthesizers and other sound sources. The result is a fully engrossing listen, always shifting focus between acoustic instruments, processed instruments and electronic sound.

Centralia is the most fully realized Mountains album. It encompasses everything Mountains represent, from the analogue electronic sound of Air Museum, to the gentle warmth and improvised grandeur of Choral. Mountains are utterly singular in their ability to combine such varied and complex sources into such delicately detailed songs of perceived simple pastoral ambience.

Double LP version includes a free download coupon with a very small amount of initial copies pressed on translucent red vinyl.

Mountains skilful manipulation of texture and space creates a sound that stealthily envelops you like an Appalachian fog Uncut (4 stars)

Where less-seasoned creators of meandering soundscapes might overload the listener, Anderegg and Holtkamp seem to be able to delicately pile sound source upon sound source without disturbing the calming balance XLR8R

A consistently rewarding album, whose layered textures and pleasant atmospheres are complemented by moments of sheer blissfulness Tiny Mix Tapes