The Living Mountain

Mountains have always played an enormous role in my life, as an active mountaineer as well as a composer. At one point, I found a wide open, empty space for my soul to roam around … at other times climbing could be a challenge, I could experience extreme situations and dangers. What I never had experienced, though, was such a thorough and unpretentious look at the mountains as author Nan Shepherd or photographer Awoiska van der Molen have shown me. In Shepherd’s book it is not about mystifying the mountains or ‘testing oneself’. It is about discovering their beauty in one specific sound, in one look. It is about hearing the whole universe of music in one cry of a bird. And it is about hearing, feeling and experiencing yourself.
Thomas Larcher