Mountains
Mountains Mountains Mountains
Mountains re-release this excellent slab of organic electroacoustic drone on Thrill Jockey. Following on from his exceptional Type long-player, Field Rituals, Koen Holtkamp regroups with cohort Brendon Anderegg for a long-awaited new Mountains release. Previously encountered on the duo's own Brooklyn-based Apestaartje label, the Mountains sound proved to be one of the most organic and natural examples of how acoustic instrumentation and digital electronics might be merged together. Plugging guit…
Centralia
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 hyper-prolificity, Mountains have taken their time on Centralia, resulting in an album that is as precise as it is boundl…
Air Museum
Air Museum blurs the lines between acoustic and electronic music even more without sacrificing melody or the delicacy of their sound. It is an album of firsts. It was the first album that the acoustic instruments were not processed via a computer. Instead, the processing of the instrumentation (acoustic and electric guitar, cello, accordion, piano, bass etc.) was done using a variety of pedals, modular synths, and other analog techniques. While acoustic instruments were used extensively, …
Choral
The idea of deep or detailed listening is a useful one because it’s purposefully vague. That vagueness comes in part from being understandable without needing to route it through a definition. It’s also rich enough in connotation to suggest a whole lifestyle. The idea of detailed listening is not the same as Michaelangelo Matos’ slow listening movement, but they seem to share the same spirit of deliberateness and presence. Mountains, the Brooklyn duo of Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg, …