The Mountains Among Us

This limited record is housed in ridiculously elaborate packaging — an oversized pizza-delivery-style box with a wax volcano in one corner and inside, along with the record, are a bonus CD and some original photos and other artwork. As for the music, The Mountain Among Us contains surreal scrapes and drones that are a bit like early Organum, but slightly more varied and with a tinge of ethnic Celtic music thrown in. There are almost no vocals, and percussion only crops up in a couple of places; otherwise this consists only of mostly abstract soundscapes, the noises of birds and children playing, and then sudden, abrupt noises. On one side a melody drifts in and out of the more abstract sounds. Both sides end in locked grooves. The bonus CD, subtitled "A Volcano Compilation, Vol. 2," is a compilation of Volcano the Bear and related projects (Earth Trumpet, Le Monte, Guignol, Songs of Norway, and the One Ensemble of Daniel Padden) and gives one a good idea of the various Volcano the Bear side projects, most which sound different enough to be distinct, but similar enough that the CD still coheres nicely.