There is a lot that is unusual about this album, starting with the instrumental combination of viola player (and experimental music maker) Marta Sofia Honer and keyboard electronicist and producer Jeremiah Chiu. Finding themselves in the remote Åland Islands – an archipelago midway between Sweden, Finland and Estonia - the US duo were inspired by the place’s ‘serene and strange’ quality to begin recording music and ambient sound with a view to constructing an audio evocation.

The resulting 11 tracks present a mesmerising experience of island life, starting with the slowly breaking waves of 'In Åland Air' and the frozen stillness of 'On The Other Sea' before moving through the babbling watery synth sweeping away the school hall sonority of Stureby House Piano.

The couple met during a scratch performance of Terry Riley's In C and there are clear echoes of Riley’s late 1960s music in that latter track and also in the cross rhythmic minimalism of 'By Foot By Sea'. As with much ambient music the sonic compatibility running through the album is based on slow chord changes around long-held drones, reassuringly conventional in harmonic terms.

The most complex (and satisfying) track 'Archipelago' does construct a contrast of tone between layered viola and keyboards, though that eventually resolves to usher in the anthemic 'Under The Midnight Sun'.

This debut recording project successfully captures its inspirations but reveals less about the musicians themselves – Honer’s viola is distinctive among the birdsong of 'Snåcko' but otherwise, rather more elusive – and perhaps some stormy weather might have provided a counterpoint to all that stately tranquility?