Comes on yellow 2LP + 12″ original artwork print by Jamie Hewlett
The Mountain turns inward, upward, and across oceans. Inspired by personal losses—the deaths of both Albarn’s and Hewlett’s fathers during production—the 15-track odyssey frames grief not as a void, but as a spiritual climb. Anchored by the band’s fictional pilgrimage through the “gloriously technicolor” landscape of India, the record spans six languages (English, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Yoruba, and Russian) to deliver a worldbeat synth-pop masterpiece that finds solace in the face of mortality.
To build The Mountain, Albarn, co-producers James Ford, Samuel Egglenton, and longtime collaborator Remi Kabaka Jr. packed up their gear and abandoned the comfortable confines of West London. While tracking began at Albarn’s Studio 13, the sonic soul of the record was captured on the move across India and the Middle East—stretching from Island City Studios in Mumbai and Kintsugi in New Delhi to field recordings captured around the Ghats of Varanasi, Rajasthan’s Amber Fort, and Damascus.
