If 2019’s ‘Winter’ captured Cold Blue at his most expansive, then ‘Mountain’ finds him in sharper relief — more distilled and even more deliberate in its pursuit of a singular vision. As ‘Winter’ went widescreen and was mapped out across a full season, in title and tone, ‘Mountain’ pointedly looks up as opposed to out, tracking the dynamics of an ascent.
Of its creation and his connection to the subject matter, Tobias says: “Ascending alpine peaks has been a life-long passion, providing inspiration for music and life. This album, 4 years in the making, expresses my ongoing personal inner mountain journey of growing and healing, of fearing and loving, of letting go and reconnecting.”
The album also embodies the idea of ‘music as a wordless language’. Titles aside, you’ll find next to no lyrics carved into this ‘Mountain’. Yet it speaks fluently – its vocabulary built from sonic textures and pressures; its ‘story’ told almost exclusively though instrumental frequencies.
It opens in the low-lying ether of ‘We Are Made Of Love’, a track that establishes a ‘base camp’ of sorts, dialling in the album’s feel. That’s chased by the haunting Flugelhorns of ‘Sunday Kiss’, which, as quickly, light an upwards path through ‘Mountain’s foothills. In turn that begets the developmental triplet of (most recent single) ‘Into The Rain’, ‘Storm’, and ‘Into The Wild’: tracks which ‘speak’ in clear terms about the musical terrain and temperatures they encounter.
As with most climbs, there are moments where a short descent becomes necessary, so as to scale higher still. In that respect tracks like ‘When Time Stands Still’, ‘Without You’, and ‘Escape’ explore that shift — placing further emphasis on the airs and atmospheres around the tracks’ clefts and drops. By the time ‘White Lights’, ‘Into The Sun’ and ‘Radiate’ crest, Tobias’s titular summit is well in view. Having reached its apex with ‘For A Miracle’, tonally, the album closes much as it begins — through the chillier signals of ‘For A Miracle’.
An outstanding album, crafted over years as opposed to months, and one that’ll remind you why the longer climb is always worth it in the end. You can find it here [coldbluemusic.lnk.to/mountain]
Cold Blue’s ‘Mountain’ tracklist:
01. We Are Made Of Love
02. Sunday Kiss
03. Storm
04. Into The Rain
05. Without You
06. Escape
07. Into The Wild
08. When Time Stands Still
09. White Lights
10. Into The Sun
11. Radiate (with Nicole Willerton)
12. For A Miracle
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