Amongst a crop on new talent emerging from the area are Skare, who – despite the unfortunate nomenclature turn in an impressive debut for Glacial Movements in the form of Solstice City. In a continuation of the label’s obsessive remit of all things icy and stark, Skare’s Mathias Josefson, Frederik Olofsson, and Per Åhlund exhibit a work of profoundly elegant ambience that rivals the work of Lull and Sleep Research Facility, and maybe even Lustmord for sheer depth and dark, engulfing beauty. One short (To The Other Shore), and a duo of long form pieces (Through Wind and Broken Ice, and The Snow Angel Factory) bring the collection to around 60 minutes of sheer deep listening bliss.

Expect dark and haunting presences with protracted sequences of stark, shimmering atmospherics, tracing billowing lines through glassy tones. Occasionally these atmospherics are refracted through a backdrop of field recording elements, deeply abstracted crackles and obscure shapes that reinforce the sense of isolation and solitude in the midst of an Arctic winter. In rare moments, the filtered remnants of a piano break through, like sunlight emerging from dark clouds, giving a sense of hope and humanity..absolutely sublime.

Starting out as tranquil field recordings with birdsong, they add high ebow drones and something that sounds like many stringed instruments being played simultaneously. After some ten minutes the track moves off into hypnotising drone territory, with occasional sounds of a music box being wound up, giving the whole a freaky atmosphere. The drones build up, louder and louder, to then quickly give way to airy and spacious sounds around the 30-minute mark. Beautiful then is how the track quite unexpectedly ends in glitch, with drones and other sounds skipping and tottering as if you were listening to a badly scratched CD.