About Mountains

There are 3 bands with the name Mountains: 1) An American ambient project. 2) A melodic hardcore band from Chile. 3) A Korean math rock band. 1) Mountains is an ambient/drone project based in Brooklyn, New York. Comprised of Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg, the duo has released several albums, originally on their own label Apestaartje starting in 2005 and through Thrill Jockey since 2009, the latest being Centralia in 2013. The two, having first met in middle school, formed Mountains after bonding during their time at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, and conceived the project in the late nineties as a platform for combining acoustic and electronic instrumentation in a live setting. Materials are improvised onstage, with many elements making their way onto studio albums. Field recordings are often incorporated to further blur the distinction between natural acoustics and electronic synthesis. Holtkamp (who is originally from the Netherlands) has released multiple albums under his own name, including a few via Thrill Jockey, and has also recorded as Aero, a silent partner, and N/A and collaborated with musicians Chris Forsyth and Ben Vida; while his cohort has output under his full name, as Anderegg, and in the band Charter Oak. Both members have scored pieces for film and video, and Holtkamp sometimes shows his own films during live performances.