One quality of first class drone is the ability to fill up the space it’s being let out into, emanating from the speakers and flooding into every corner. At it’s best you can walk around the space and actually be inside the music, it becomes a half-physical / half-imaginary presence. Safe to say, Choral is some first class drone. Mountains is the duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, friends since childhood they shared common artistic and musical interests and both ended up attending School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where they started exchanging musical ideas which eventually led to the founding of the Apestaartje label in 1999. They have gained critical appreciation in the past with two limited-release albums, and last year Koen Holtkamp also released his solo debut to much acclaim. Choral was recorded during winter and spring of 2008 in Brooklyn (where they also live), interestingly most of the album was recorded live with very few overdubs, presumably allowing some improvisation and giving the album a living, breathing character.This album paints wide-open spaces and suffuses them with warm tones, sounds are pasted together creating a mesh of gauzy sounds taken from electric and acoustic sources, with some field recordings in there too. First track ‘Choral’ (one of two 12 minute long tracks) is one of the most varied in terms of instruments/sound sources used, a singing bowl resonates, a xylophone is seemingly played with cotton wool beaters, there’s a tinkling keyboard, vocal chants of a single vowel, and some acoustic guitar (among a few other thing). These elements sway and float in circles around a constant Stars Of The Lid type drone, which runs through the middle, it’s a magnificent example of what I’m talking about in the first paragraph. The other 12 minute song ‘Melodica’, is actually one of the least varied pieces on the album. It’s mostly made up of a few swirling drone winds, deep and light and variations in between, with light scraping sounds from bells and jingly things, and then some lazy guitar figures near the end. The fact ‘Melodica’ is one of the best tracks on the album says much, it is a different take on drone from that depicted in ‘Choral’ (and the rest of the album, which resembles the title track), but it ends up being just as masterfully crafted and executed.Choral has a predominantly new-agey, transcendent, relaxing type vibe to it, and there’s not much wrong with that. A lot of drone out there mines more serious melancholy themes, and while that approach is great and has produced some unbelievable stuff, it’s also nice to come across something like what Mountains have crafted here. Although there are some intense moments. ‘Add Infinity’ is all about the contrasting textures of light smooth tones and agitated feedback crackles, ‘Telescope’ even has a blizzard of distortion building up some tension, attempting to assimilate the chanting religious tone from earlier in the track. Choral creates alternate worlds that can be reached through the speakers, wide open spaces without a trace of human presence. 80%Mountains on MySpace