Jolie Holland - Haunted Mountain

Jolie Holland's 'Haunted Mountain' is a beckoning, confronting place. At once ancient and of the moment, it hums with literary and political interconnections. The songs illuminate states of dispossession and alienation, lust and pollination: a state of reciprocity with our living planet. The record is a creation beyond genre, a refined jewel refracting anti-patriarchal dance music, sultry anti-fascist love songs to bats and bees. The album's rendered environments - ranging from sparse acoustic constellations to dense electronic atmospheres - are punctuated with nuanced percussion from cicadas, drums and even knuckles on piano. These sound-worlds were produced and animated by a trio of multi-instrumentalists: Jolie Holland, Adam Brisbin and Justin Veloso. Helping to conjure 'Haunted Mountain', the great magician Buck Meek of Big Thief authors the third verse of the title track, and duets with Holland on "Highway 72". In an audacious conspiracy, both Meek and Holland include versions of their song "Haunted Mountain," and both name their records after the song. After all, it is fun to say.