Time Is A Mountain

Though perhaps best known as a member of Swedish folk-tronica trio Tape, you can get a pretty clear sense of Tomas Hallonsten’s aesthetic through his Time Is A Mountain project. Joined by fellow Tape member Johan Berthling, and jazz drummer Andreas Werlin, the seven songs here intersect a number of fields neatly – post-rock; the becalmed jazz of ECM; the rich melodicism of peers like Sagor & Swing; there’s also a touch of progressive rock in some of the moves here, though that’s applied with an understated hand (it’s closer to Canterbury prog than anything else). Songs are allowed to unfold slowly, often serenely, through accumulating repeated gestures: on “Clavier,” an album highlight, Werlin’s articulate drums, accenting and shifting across the song, drive Berthling’s liquid bass and a glitching keyboard to hypnotic territory.