Norwegian musician
Hærleif Langås has been making frigid ambient soundscapes since the 1990s, utilizing field recordings and bright, clear drones that match the vast, bitterly cold emptiness of the Arctic tundra. He's usually categorized as dark ambient, but much of his work is more arid and brittle than dark. The
Istid (Ice Age) series attempts to imagine the world before the dawn of mankind, and
III is where traces of humanity start to enter the picture. It's a bit gloomy, but not oppressively heavy, and there's a strange sort of comfort to be found in the sounds of rushing wind and crackling ice. Some distant, distraught voices seep into the picture during the end of the second movement, and chilling melodies slowly surface. The final part sounds downright cinematic, with suspenseful pads and gusts of howling wind, making an already captivating album sound all the more powerful.