Strange Mountain ll – Orchestra of Glittering Roses

Throughout 2017-2018, I worked on a multitude of recordings in search of trying to find a new way of communicating emotions through Strange Mountain music. The II is symbolic of finally going through this door. I wanted to take back the value of nostalgia as something real, something personal – something I think I evoked vividly through the earliest SM recordings. I realized that this meant facing the crossroads of the time present and past. Not only to stray way from the cheapening of memories as a “80s/90s kid” gimmick but facing the realities of time, cherishing the present while acknowledging our personal history as human instead of pieces of pop culture anecdotes. For once it felt acceptable to use symbolism in the practices of creation, and as such I began utilizing the process of sampling – something I rarely did in SM – and finding pieces from different sources that somehow fit and spoke to each other, harmonizing to create something that looked ahead with optimism. This meant using a combination processed samples of two sources: one “contemporary” and one “old”, preferably from the era I was a young child at. What you are hearing are processed pieces of things that include significant sounds of the late 80s / very early 90s era – japanese mecha robot / classic anime theme songs, instrumental sections of indonesian pop hits, etc – against samples from the past 5 years – my daughter’s violin playing, pieces of my own music, other’s musical movements – shifting and intertwining with each other. Making sure they ere harmonious was somehow less an issue than I had imagined. It feels right and somehow joyful in its own way even if it glimmers with melancholy memories. I hope this feeling translates.

Recorded at home, Serpong, Indonesia at the tail end of 2018
For Ingrid, Anio, Devo
Art: commons
Design: Leo Romanick

fluere tapes 15