It’s the careful production that lays bare some very personal emotions but the way it’s produced also puts a sort of ghostly feel to it. The song feels very fragile, like she is in the room with us, sitting in a corner while faintly reflecting about her disconnection to other people. The hushed intimacy of Pale Interior is an example of the first. Harris has always been a master of weaving inner emotions with her natural surroundings. Grouper’s dark side and light side are wonderfully placed next to each other on Shade, and keep in mind, we’re only two tracks in. It’s hard not to imagine waking up on an early spring morning when the first light peeks through the curtains.

How different is the strikingly clear Unclean Mind that’s only based on strums and breezy vocals. On Followed the Ocean Harris’s voice surges under the heavy layers giving it the impression she’s battling to hold herself up in a storm. Shade opens with so much distortion and reverb it feels like you are listening to a very vintage sounding LP.

This year we are treated to Shade, which brings together 15 years of unreleased music by Grouper. For example, 2008’s acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill is a whole different cup of tea from Ruins that was released several years later. No Grouper album therefore sounds the same. As Grouper she harmonises ambient, folk and psychedelics while simultaneously searching for the nuances in between.

Harris has been releasing work since 2005 under the Grouper moniker and other side projects such as Nivhek She is best known for creating her own niche sound that is loosely based on her upbringing in a Fourth Way commune. Liz Harris, AKA Grouper is one of Kranky Records finest acts. Good thing Grouper’s latest album carries the title Shade… right. Living in the shade is sort of romantic for a while so now we only need a soundtrack that goes along with that. It’s December in the Northern Hemisphere so if we have any sun we usually go about our daily lives among the long shadows.

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