gradual music and active listening

Apestaartje has been slowly dispersing quiet pieces of exquisite beauty since 1998. Releases from Anderegg and Minamo have been filling in the "audio wallpaper" to my monotonous day job in a very calming manner. So when I learned that the latest project from the label, Mountains, wanted to come to my town to play a show, I was very excited. This new "group" combines the electronic with the acoustic, I guess making them electro-acoustic. Mixing in field recordings with their sparse live instrumentation and subtle digital tweaking, I can easily hear this album melting into the rising din of summertime crickets, locusts and other night-time critters as the sun goes down. A new classic of ambient minimalism.

They already have a wonderful review that nearly perfectly captures their sound:

Often sounding like classic Apollo era Brian Eno recorded during a tropical downpour, while at others bringing to mind the glorious sun-drenched layering of genre-master Fennesz, this album evokes the feeling you had as a child when opening boxed presents only to find another box inside and then another ... until you finally reach the gemstone kept heavily under wraps.

I wish I wrote that, but they did. Check them out now, live, through the end of November.

Mountains - Blown Glass Typewriter