7 tracks. Running time 73:58 Veteran electronic music artist Craig Padilla's latest solo album is Below the Mountain. Utilising analogue synths the title refers to the surroundings of Mt Shasta in Northern California. The music is a modern take on retro synth styles with hints of Berlin School, and so is a change of tack from his previous ambient spacemusic album The Light in the Shadow. A good example of the Berlin School tendency is found in the nostalgic “Woven Planet”. A bubbling sequence reminiscent of TD's Rubycon era frames spacey synth lines easing by in their different tones and timbres. Next up is my favourite piece “Wandering Thought” where synth effects humming like power cables play in the backdrop against slow organ like tones yearning or looking on in wonder at a spectacular landscape. Ethereal whistling voices presage open the piece “Windspell” dedicated to the late fellow musician Michael Garrison. It's a track of two parts where initially a sequence of merged bleepy notes tunnels around the soundscape while licking percussion and exuberant melodies and refrains flash by. This gives way to an extended passage of drones seemingly made out of earlier sonic elements. Bringing the album to a close is the longest and varied piece “Alturas”. The listener is taken on a journey beginning with subdued organ(ish) notes and reverbing synth pads. Growing slightly in intensity and with the addition of gentle female wordless vocals it morphs into a rhythmic sequencing passage. As though we've passed over a peak the music drops down to another ambient section before turning into a trance style complete with beats and hypnotic rhythms. At first I thought Below the Mountain, like many EM works out there at the moment, was a good but not great work. Eventually it's grown on me; musically it's got some great moments and works well at conveying a haunting sense of a sometimes brooding and dramatic landscape.