"While much of early 2025 appears to be a whirlwind of abject disappointment littered with  genuine horror and an undeniable waste of actual human potential, here we find a much needed  escape from modern agonies in this mesmerizing collaborative from Joshua Burkett & Lau Nau.  Both artists have been laying trails of singular beauty for decades and the combination of  their aesthetics create a true mind meld as complimentary as softly falling snow lit by the  first light of dawn. Subtly swirling magical elements twinkle & undulate and slowly suck the  listener in deeper & deeper to the very heart of the album's nest. A fragile, melancholic aura  transcends the poignant & insular sound world, & evokes a camera panning back to slowly reveal  a vast landscape of wintry yearning in which heartbreak & reverie calmly intermingle, both  create an extremely comforting bath of sound.

Lau Nau (Laura Naukkarinen) is a Finnish sound artist & musician whose multi-disciplinary endeavors  also include film scores, compositions for theatre, dance & choral performances and multi- channel sound installations, as well as her passion for presenting live scores for silent films. She first caught my attention at the dawn of the 21st century when she appeared with the other  cool tendrils emanating from the remarkable Finnish psychedelic underground scene documented by  the Fonal label. She participated in projects with an improvisatory bent such as Avarus & Kemialliset  Ystävät as well as collaborations with Kuupuu and Tsembla (plus don't forget Hertta Lussu Assa!). Her solo recordings as Lau Nau emerged  with a fully formed aesthetic of a dreamy sound world in which a hybrid of song craft and abstraction  merged to generate ultra evocative pastures of bliss & melancholy. Each subsequent album has  achieved greater levels of sophistication with her most recent amazing works ("Puutarhassa" from  2022 & "Aphrilis" from 2023) 

Burkett is a musician, writer, illustrator, painter, & naturalist and has been a quietly guiding light of the Western Massachusetts underground music community for the past 30 years.  After leaving CT& Boston (and his stints playing in groups like Vermonster & Bimbo Shrineheads) came Josh's debut album ("OwlLeavesRustling" which he self released in 1995) which is one  the first examples of what would much later come to be known as "Free Folk", "Freak  Folk", &/or "New Weird America". He has many previous duo collaborations under his belt, having  worked with the late, great Ed Askew, releasing a duo album with the phenomenal Tucker Zimmerman  in 2020, his electronic project Tarp with Conrad Capistran (of Sunburned Hand of the Man,  Mozzaleum) and others

There is an undeniable specialness to this new release which exudes a time stopping magic that  is guaranteed to stretch out your latest night or earliest morning. In this tumultuous age we  find ourselves shoved into, it is a blessing to be offered a brief but splendid respite from  the contemporary clusterfelch of rage, anxiety & confusion. My only critique of this album would  be that as a single sided LP, so one is left craving more of these glorious sounds to bask in.  But what could be more novel & precious in this era of the endless tsunami of content than to be  left wishing for more of something? I urge you to temporarily unplug from the all encompassing  polycrysis and immerse yourself in  this small yet vast world that Josh & Lau Nau have lovingly built for you, then try to build  one of your own." - Robert Thomas