Album Review: Mountains - Centralia

By its nature, ambient music is designed to alter the mood of the room in an imperceptible way, and in doing so change the experience of those who choose to inhabit said space. Brooklyn duo Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg flirt with notions of such music, with long peaceful drawn-out drones and meditative washes of sound. However, you'd hesitate to call what they do ambient, because too much is happening and it's too perceptible. This is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it simultaneously manages to slow down and pacify the listener – creating all those highly soughtafter effects, while also building their ingredients, and playing with volume, tempo and texture. The dreamy quality comes from loops and repetition, and in this sense there's links to komische music, creating a haunting hypnotic bed of sound. It's not unconscious music, but the unconscious does play a role.

It's the duo's seventh album, and they tend to alter their approach with each successive album. Centralia is about the interplay between digital electronic sounds and acoustic or traditional instrumentation, most notably the guitar, though you can also hear cello at times. This isn't simply formless washes of sound; rather, a lot of care has gone into not just the composition, but in the development of melodies and accompaniment via the various instruments.

With elements of folk music and lush ambient electronica, Centralia brings to mind the peace of labelmates Windy & Carl, though also the grace and warmth of Eluvium and Stars Of The Lid. Though there's also something else, and it's difficult to put your finger on. But there's a mischievous experimental energy here, making Mountains feel at times like the quietest, most subtle noise band you've ever heard.