Celebrate More Mount Shrine Artistry with The Mount Hibiki Tapes

Sometimes an artist’s soul reaches through the miasma and touches the mortal world even beyond death - Cesare Alexadre is that artist. We find ourselves in the third year since his passing from this world, and yet his music endures, and continues to influence, inspire, and illuminate those who would listen. Perhaps most widely known as the composer for the soundscape project, Mount Shrine, a lesser-known side project of his was Mount Hibiki. Simon Heath, owner and curator of the Cryo Chamber dark ambient label has gone to great lengths in releasing all of Cesare’s works to the label’s catalog; The Mount Hibiki Tapes compiles all currently known underground albums, singles and EPs produced as this project. 

The Mount Hibiki Tapes consists of over two hours of beautiful droning excellence, the stylized audio typical flourishes of the late Alexandre, and to describe the moods of the music is quite difficult. Most music and emotion can be summarized with definite, kinetic verbs, happy, sad, joyful, hateful - Mount Shrine, and more specifically this collection of works, exists in a realm of placid meandering. Offering no definite motive or goal, this is the music of languorous existing, breathing for the sake of breathing; existing for the sake of existing. Cesare’s music often reminds me of a more subdued Vangelis, the beautiful harmonies awash in filters and faded to the periphery of the listener’s id, yet definite in their timbre, whose presence helps guide the listener along these subtle and relaxing journeys. It would seem Cesare has musically extended a guiding hand from the world beyond and walking with us as we meander through this music, his back silhouetted in front of us by the light of eternity, his body just barely out of reach, yet we feel welcomed by the presence. This is the music of pure, unmotivated relaxation, of respite in a world that relentlessly pummels its survivors in a deluge of the mundane, and I am thankful every time I listen to the music of Cesare and the comfort and relaxation it brings. 

The thanks must also extend to Simon Heath for his diligence in releasing all of Cesare’s material, this latest coming on 3 discs in CD Digipak, and you can purchase it on the Cryo Chamber Bandcamp page. I cannot encourage you enough to buy this collection, to sit back and let your mind drift along the subtle caresses of gentle music fashioned in a manner as only Cesare Alexandre could compose. Rest in peace, Cesare, and thank you for your music.