I first heard Mountains one chilly winter night at Oberlin, sitting on the couch at 2am with my roommates, listening to albums brought back from our respective homeward vacations. I was immediately stuck by Mountains intriguingly spacial compositions, lush with both electronic and acoustic instrumentation.

Mountains is one of those now-a-days rare groups whose recordings are hard to find online via file sharing, so I was happy to discover “Etching” (Thill Jockey) at one of my local record stores, Soundfix Records, who specialize in new prints. Apparently, “Etching” was recorded at mountain-man Brendon Anderegg’s home studio in real time with no overdubs. They printed a limited number of hand-stamped LPs and sold them on their subsequent tour.

I took my first listen to the LP right after I got back from the store with one of my home-brewed espressos in hand. The album has but one song, which clocks in at about 38 minutes in total, meaning they had to split up the song on the LP. And, needless to say, it is a beautiful experience to hear in its entirety. It comes babbling in like an opening overture, and using the subtlest variations in sonic textures, it evolves into an ever blossoming field of sounds. The first thought that came into my mind was that it sounds like a Robert Fripp & Brian Eno collaboration, complete with Robert Fripp styled guitar at about 20 minutes in; or like music to a smart tech commercial or yoga studio.

You can stream “Etching” straight from Thrill Jockey’s Website HERE.