Olivia Block — a gifted artist whose work spans improvisation, orchestral pieces, sound installation and an ongoing engagement with the piano, and who has been a central figure in Chicago's experimental music scene since the late 1990s — returns with a new album, "The Mountains Pass," out on Black Truffle!!
An ambitious work inspired by the time she spent in a particular mountain range in northern New Mexico and by the world of nature and animals, it was recorded at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio and then carefully edited over the course of three years. Composed of white noise, delicate and microscopic electronics, elegantly chamber-like piano lines, harpsichord, organ, trumpet and her own voice, it's a superb spiritual-modern-progressive, lyrical folky-minimalist, piano-ambient-jazz record. Hypnotic, and boldly charting new ground. 5 tracks in all. (Original Japanese text by COMPUMA)