Mono are a Japanese post-rock instrumental band whose epic songs follow the familiar trajectory of quiet gradually building to a distorted roar. Think Mogwai with double to triple the average song length. That description nails their essence but fails to do them justice. Mono are truly masters at creating beautiful, intensely moody music.

Take, for example, one of You Are There’s stunners, “The Yearning.” It starts out with two guitars playing melodies so stark they’re more suggestive than substantial. Things get a little meatier with some soft, melancholy strumming. Cymbals and an occasional pair of thudding drums slowly add to the mix. The volume increases over minor chords that threaten to gently tug your heart right from your chest until echo laden staccato notes send everything soaring into the tumultuous thunderclouds of distortion that have been steadily gathering overhead. There’s a sudden lull before a mighty rock eruption that might be described as giants smashing down a forest with boulders while being struck by lightning and swarmed by bees. After much destruction the giants, bees, and, uh, lightning tire themselves out and stagger to a rest. Mixed metaphors aside, “The Yearning” is pretty typical of the kind of music Mono composes.

You Are There, like Mono’s other work, is not for the casual listener. It demands patience and rewards undivided attention. It doesn’t work well as background music because without concentration the spare, quiet passages tend to lose interest. And since the longer songs build momentum as they progress, this makes the tail ends of the crescendos all the more jarring. Adventurous music fans willing to give You Are There full consideration though, even on a scattershot song by song basis, will travel on some remarkable sonic journeys.