Though the music purveyed by Mountains can be characterized by a few distinct facets - pastoral ambient drone, psychedelic neo-folk, musique concrete - it never comes off as anything but singular in its intent. With extended passages that shift gradually over their course, Mountains' songs act as immersive experiences, rife with the sort of attention to detail that rewards a patient and attentive listener. The duo's newest release, Centralia, could be seen as a summation of everything they had previously created, a thick, pulsing web of sounds that remains captivating throughout its hour-plus running time. Mountains' multi-instrumentalist Koen Holtcamp was gracious enough to answer a few questions about his band's aesthetic approach.
On first listen, your music seems fairly minimal, with a wider variety of textures, tones, and approaches becoming apparent with subsequent listens. Is it difficult to balance a singularity of aesthetic purpose with more dynamic structural elements and a wider breadth of influences?
We're definitely into the idea of recordings revealing more with repeated listening. We don't always want people to notice all the details immediately - that way it becomes more of an active experience rather then just passive background music. Balancing a specific aesthetic, dynamic structures and influences can be a challenge at times but that's one of the things keeps it interesting for us. Not to say that what we do isn't deliberate or thought out but after doing this for awhile a lot of it has to do with intuition as well.
Was the title of your new album a reference to Centralia, Pennsylvania? If so, how did the content of the album relate to that city's history?
No, it wasn't meant to reference that specifically, though we are familiar with the place. We initially came across the name as a town in southern Oregon while on tour out West, and it kind of stuck with us. While some of our records are more focused on a few approaches, we see Centralia as being somewhat of a combination of everything we've done. So Centralia made sense as a central point or place for the music to come from.
The video for “Living Lens” features a single, unbroken shot of fire. How does that imagery relate to the music?
It's meant to evoke a feeling of sorts rather then any direct literal connection. When I was going through footage to use for the video, I noticed [that] a shot I had taken of sparks coming out of a fire was almost the exact length of the track. I thought it was a nice coincidence that they happened to be the same length, and when I put the single shot with the track, there were some interesting connections, timing and otherwise, between the two, so I decided to just use that one shot. It's not a totally pure approach though, as I ended up putting it in reverse in the end as it has a more climatic linear development that way. It was somewhat inspired by Structural Films from the 60's and 70's.
Given the evocative quality of the music, have you considered pairing your music with video or other media more often?
Yes. We've performed with our own, as well as others' video, quite a few times. Since it's a new set, we're focusing more on the music at the moment, but we might add a visual element at some point in the future.
Unlike many artists who attempt to integrate electronic and acoustic instruments, Mountains largely combines the two in a manner that doesn't place them in stark contrast. Is it ever difficult to incorporate the two elements?
Sure. Certain sounds don't always work that well together, but then you either work with the contrast or try something else. We've been working with this combination for awhile now, and we spend a lot of time with each individual sound, so I'd like to think we've gotten better at ways of making it work over time. A lot of it comes down to how you balance these elements.
How much of the composition process stems from each facet of your instrumentation?
The guitar and electronics has been the most consistent and probably most present in our releases overall, and are often the starting point. Things like Cello, shruti box and field recordings tend to come later but that is not always the case.
Do you feel that the incorporation of field recordings lends your composition a sort of context, however subtle?
It can imply certain things, via the association people have with a lot of the everyday type of sounds we've used in our recordings, but we're not going for anything particularly literal in the way in which we use them.
Is there any specific quality you look for in a place or situation that would inspire you to record it?
We're less focused on field recordings these days but generally we just go for things we find sonically interesting. I usually use binaural microphones, which are based on the shape of the human head and tend to create a sort of hyper-dimensionality, so capturing movement (wind, water, cars over a bridge etc) can be spatially quite interesting.
In previous interviews, you had said Mountains was intended for live settings. How does your current work differ from previous, more studio-inclined, projects?
Early on, when we were just working in the studio and not really considering an audience being in the same room, the music was much quieter, as it was intended for home listening. We got somewhat bored with this approach and decided we wanted to create something more physical, specifically for a live situation, which has been a learning experience of sorts. We realized pretty quickly that if you're playing in a noisy bar, for example, it can be difficult to play quietly - you have to be able to catch people's attention and literally be heard. Of course, we could only play in quiet galleries or museums, but we enjoy being able to play in a diverse range of circumstances rather then just for one particular kind of audience.
How do the textures and layers of your music translate to a live setting?
The live set tends to be quite loud at times, and a little bit rawer then what ends up on the records, because it's more about creating something in a specific physical space in that moment.
Several of the songs on Centralia were based on live recordings. Was it difficult to blend the live and studio material into a cohesive whole?
Sometimes there's some discrepancy or inconsistency between the quality of the live and studio recordings, so that takes a little time to balance, but given some work we can usually find a way to fit them together.
How has your creative process evolved since the earlier albums?
In the beginning, it was mostly laptops and guitars with maybe some melodica or other small acoustic instruments and objects, so the range of instruments we use has grown quite a bit. We also try to change our approach in terms of how we record or compose somewhat regularly to keep things interesting and hopefully force ourselves to go in some new directions.
Is there a particular direction you'd like to take your music on subsequent recordings?
Right now we're mostly focused on the new live set, which in our process is basically the very early stages of the next recording. We usually talk about a more specific direction after we've developed the set a bit more. We just finished a 7", which was an interesting challenge for us given the format's limited time constraint and our tendency towards slower longer pieces.
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Mountains performs at Strange Matter (929 W. Grace St.) on Tuesday, February 19th with Anduin, Tungs, and Thieves of Shiloh. Doors open at 9 PM, admission is $7. For more info, click here.