Centralia
Running nearly 70 minutes, *Centralia* is a sprawling and hypnotic journey. The duo of Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg creates a plaintive and moving work from disparate parts woven together with great care. Understated and contemplative, *Centralia* is a celebration of subtle interactions. The interplay between synth drones and hypnotic acoustic guitar and piano melodies blurs the line between organic and electronic. On first listen, the music seems to rarely waver. Yet subsequent listens reveal many unexpected and startling moments, such as the cello passage near the end of “Sand” and the gentle warble that rises to the surface midway through the 20-minute centerpiece “Propeller.” *Centralia* is a captivating tour de force that stretches the boundaries of ambient music.
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 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. Most of Centralia was recorded by Holtkamp and Anderegg at Telescope Recording in Brooklyn, with the exception of the side-long “Propeller” and “Liana,” which are recordings of live shows later augmented with additional instrumentation. The duo recorded, edited, and mixed everything themselves, creating a sonic and aesthetic continuity only achievable through such fastidious and insular methods. Be it the gently melodic acoustic guitar and keyboard of “Tilt” or the steady, subtle pulsating haze of “Living Lens,” the album is as sonically rich as it is compositionally diverse. Centralia is the most fully realized Mountains album, it encompasses everything Mountains represents, from the analog 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.
On Centralia, the Brooklyn electro-acoustic duo Mountains have finally landed in a place as vast and awe-inspiring as the landforms they're named after. This is music for wide open spaces, full of reach and depth.
As a document of their music, this is Mountains' finest work to date and a testament to their singular vision of how analogue and electronics can best be combined.
There's something rugged about Centralia, the latest release from Mountains, the duo of Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg.