Sweeping post-rock.
The Ascent of Everest from Nashville are still in their infancy, yet the six piece create such beautiful sound-scapes of awe inspiring fuzzy noise that you’d swear they were veterans. Many of the epic length tunes on “How Lonely Sits The City” sweep you away with what seems like no effort at all. The TAOE sound relies on cello, violin, piano, guitar and bass and from the collaboration of these few instruments they design spaces that are delicate and tuneful one moment and inescapably heavy and tumultuous the next.
TAOE have the same post-rock intensity as scene heavyweights Godspeed You! Black Emperor, this emotional core is created through layers of sound from the strings, guitars and drums but with minimal vocal input. As with GY!BE they occasionally insert sections of talking instead of actual vocals, as in ‘A Threnody’ in which this spoken word spills over into political venting over a discordant thrashing of instruments. This is a powerful and moving if at times terrifying aural display uses counterpoint to create an emotionally charged intensity and occasionally you find yourself almost too overwhelmed by the hugeness of it all.
Plus twelve minute opener ‘Alas! Alas! The Breath Of Life!’ has more climaxes than a Soho brothel, sweeping ever upwards on a sea of orchestral noise. ‘We Trembled In Our Own Hearts’ is beautiful and terrible, the crashing finale so loud and intense that it makes your skin prickle. ‘If I Could Move Mountains’, impresses with its scope; moving from lovely opening section with husky vocals to the full majesty of the band in full swing, to the gentle twinkling of xylophone and the dusky mellow of the cello to break your heart, this is all backed up with tuneful piano and guitar striking up a melancholy but memorable melody together. It ends with vocal oohs and ahhs fading to the ambient sound of children playing, gently easing you out of the journey.
An impressive debut of crashing intensity and soothing gentleness all wrapped up into one gorgeous post-rock package which sweeps you away with ease.