Liz Harris, the mysterious Pacific Northwest musician behind the long-running ambient project Grouper, has just released a surprise double album under the name Nivhek. After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards The House, described in a press release as “opaque assemblages of Mellotron, guitar, field recordings, tapes, and broken FX pedals,” combines recordings made during and after residencies in Portugal and Russia with pieces made at Harris’ home in Astoria, Oregon.

Harris calls the music contained within After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards The House “a requiem, a ritual, to unlock and release feelings … a toxic concentrated reduction of something much darker bubbling beneath … wraithlike and ethereal, their existence in the mist questionable.” She also cites her score for the late experimental filmmaker Paul Clipson’s 2014 work Hypnosis Display as a compositional reference point, inspired by “interior mnemonic device landscapes” and “curiosity around a sadness.” Listen below.

TRACKLIST:

01 After its own death: Side A

(0 – 7:48:544 “Cloudmouth”
7:48:544 – 8:19:489 “blue room”
8:17:503 – 11:27:011 “Night-walking”
11:27:011 -16:41:254 “Funeral song”)

02 After its own death: Side B

(16:41:254 – 26:00:991 “Thirteen (version)”
26:00:991 – 28:39:125 “Crying jar”
28:39:125 – 29:29:394 “Entry”
29:29:394 – 37:33:056 “Walking in a spiral towards the house”
37:30:846 – end “Weightless”)

03 Walking in a spiral towards the house: Side A

(0 – 3:14:509 “Night-walking”
3:14:509 – 8:37:153 “Funeral song”)

04 Walking in a spiral towards the house: Side B

(8:37:153 – 12:59:510 “Thirteen”
12:59:510 – end “Walking in a spiral towards the house”)

After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards is out now on Harris’ Yellow Electric label. The last Grouper album, Grid Of Points, came out last year.