A Mountain of One

Emerging as favorites within the neo-Balearic movement, A Mountain of One captivated audiences through their captivating fusion of languid disco grooves, gentle rock textures, and psychedelic atmospheres. Early self-released EPs by the group, later gathered together on the 2007 compilation Collected Works, wove together strands of cosmic rock and downtempo dance sounds, while the darker 2009 debut album Institute of Joy deliberately moved away from prior disco leanings. Following more than ten years of inactivity, A Mountain of One resurfaced in 2021 via the sparkling single “Custards Last Stand,” issued ahead of a forthcoming second album.

Formed in London during 2005 around vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Zeben Jameson together with keyboard player and programmer Mo Morris, the project drew on Jameson’s prior session contributions to recordings by Pretenders, Travis, Dodgy, and additional artists. He had also belonged to the short-lived band Ghost, whose 2001 EP In the Wake of the Night received co-production from Morris. Dance producer Leo Elstob, whose earlier collaborations included work with Chicane and co-writing the 1996 breakthrough hit “Offshore,” likewise joined AMO; further notable participants on the 2006 debut EP were Pablo Clements of Psychonauts and UNKLE plus vocalist Martina Topley-Bird, widely recognized for her association with Tricky. The 2007 releases EP 2 and the single “Brown Piano,” the latter featuring a Studio remix, preceded the Collected Works CD. Institute of Joy, AMO’s first full-length and itself preceded by a same-titled EP, arrived in 2009; adopting a fuller band sound, the record leaned more toward rock than earlier material and incorporated a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire.” A remix EP surfaced in 2010 before AMO remained quiet for over a decade.

In 2021 the core duo of Morris, now based in Bali, and Jameson, still residing in West London, reappeared with the spacy synth-pop single “Custards Last Stand,” tracked virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic. A collection of dub versions by Dennis Bovell appeared next, after which a new full-length was confirmed, its mastering and remixing handled by Ricardo Villalobos.