Mountains in Stars: “Hazards of Loving Creatures”

You’ve heard it a million times before: a picture is worth a thousand words. But go ahead and try it out if you dare. Pick a picture and start verbalizing. Yeah…you’ll give up far before you get anywhere close to a four-digit word count. Music on the other hand? Each chord carries various connotations, which become more complex once in the context of a full progression. And for first time listeners, lyrics typically get eclipsed by the overall musical character. So when a picture inspires a piece of music, abstract beats verbose, because that pairing of art forms often has a more profound impact than words alone ever will.

Which brings us to Barry Stone, a real stalwart of Austin’s ’90s scene through his work with noise rockers johnboy and Desafinado. That legacy largely belongs to Stone alone. But the same can’t be said of the upcoming release from Stone’s indie folk trio Mountains in Stars. See, their debut album Watch the Years Gather interpolates century-old heirlooms from Stone’s great grandfather’s personal photography collection, (dating back to the early 1900s) for a new mixed media experience. From what we’ve seen so far, these skillfully-composed snapshots capture a bucolic equine atmosphere – which perfectly match the melancholy acoustic originals on this record.

More than a decade and a half after its initial recording, the full Watch the Years Gather package (40-page photo book and all) is finally being made available next Thursday thanks to a live music grant from the City of Austin Economic Development Department. You can get your hands on these temporally transportive documents straight from the source 4PM that same day at Northern-Southern Gallery as part of Fusebox Festival when Mountains in Stars performs alongside Knife in the Water pedal steel player Bill McCullough. And for early entry into this interpretative exhibit, sink your teeth into the soothing LP opener “Hazards of Loving Creatures”. Eerie, gorgeous, and otherworldly, it’s just the right kind of calm we could all use before a busy celestial weekend.

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