Mountain Man start their unique debut album, Made the Harbor, by asking you to ‘follow, follow follow’ and indeed, the voices of Amelia Meath, Molly Sarle, and Alex Sauser-Monnig, like the three sirens of Greek mythology, seem to grab you by the hand and lure you into their ethereal, beautiful world; their songs seduce and enchant you.

When listening, there was nothing to do but lie in silence, to be active felt as if I was doing the music a great disservice, and by the third track, I was utterly enthralled and in love. Like waves, Made the Harbor washes over your mind and pulls you to its depths.

Each track is short and perfectly sweet – the longest being 4:09 – and balances angelically harmonic and defined vocals with the background twangs of an acoustic guitar. Turned up loud, your ears can even make out the soft crackle of white noise which only adds to the natural, analog feel of the record, (often tracks are preceded with echoing speech or soft laughter) recorded in “two large rooms in Bennington Vermont.” Lyrics are varied and poetic, they range from stories to love songs, and the result is a haunting medley of music that feels as if it has echoed through the centuries to finally be recorded; they are shadows from the past, given volume, complexity and depth.

The record even features one cover, collected from the dusty archives of history and given new life- ‘How’m I doin’’ by the Mills Brothers, originally released in 1932. The way the three voices work together, like intertwined threads that stretch through the tracks, woven into harmonies and words produces a fabric of the most exquisite beauty.

The band has apparently only been performing since the Spring of 2009, and this album is a colossal achievement and testimony to their musical talent and compatibility.