Lotte Kestner has the quiet, understated intensity made possible by her bare bones production. She is reminiscent of Seattle’s Tiny Vipers, but even more closely related to the likes of Grouper with her wonderfully thin, beautiful, reverb kissed vocals. Her compositions in general, at the heart of them, are melancholy folk meditations. Rather than evoking woodsy, finger-picked platitudes, they manifest feelings of dissolution and isolation.
China Mountain, Kestner’s last release in 2009 named after a mountain range in southern Oregon, was recorded over a year in her basement bedroom, and mixed with Trespassers bandmate Matt Brown. Recently, on September 27th, Kestner released a cover of The National’s "Conversation 16", which with her stripped down means, lays bare the effectiveness of the vocal pattern and lyrics, acting as a kind of distillation showcasing what makes the song function in its essence.