artist: Slowdisk country of origin: Holland style(s): Ambient folk/pop/rock, experimental, improvisation essential releases: Love When We Are (2006, www.slowdisk.com)

What wonderful, delicate, strangely human music this is. The debut album of Dutch duo Slowdisk is what you might call psychedelic but not in the dense, trancey headrush sense of the word. Love When We Are is exploratory and surreal in a gentle and child-like way.

Lovely passages of guitar strumming and folksy arpeggios come and go. Odd electronic squiggles weave in an out, as do gliding organ and harmonium. Some lightly sketched percussion patterns add a touch of gravity to proceedings. The odd but sweet vocal phrasings often defy description beyond a certain similarity to avant-pop icon Laurie Anderson. The duo's experimental forays are never abrasive, kept in check by simple melodies and a very reflective pace. In fact the respect shown for silence and "the spaces in between" is crucial to the overall feel. As a production piece the album's quirky little treatments offer moments of utter brilliance; an uncanny sense of knowing which sounds to play with and which ones to leave alone.

Little is known about creators Jourke Schouwstra and Huib Bouwman. Apparently they have been in each other's musical orbit for several decades and they describe the album's contents as "music between soundscape and song". Love When We Are is very original and very beautiful, its peculiar warmth suggesting what the rays of an alien sun might feel like while you picnic under clear skies on a strange but friendly new planet.

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