In the winter of 2023, Ingri Høyland and Ida Urd retreated to a Danish sommerhus, or summer house—the tiny, tidy shacks that are a central feature of the national culture, where for generations, Danes have whiled away the warm months with their families. Picture the scene: an abiding quiet all around. Gardens carpeted by snow; beach grass silvery against the silvery sky; a tendril of smoke rising from the chimney. Not another soul in earshot.

This sanctuary was the origin for Høyland and Urd’s Duvet, a meditation on shelter, trust, and communication. They were motivated by the idea of nesting: finding ways of feeling safe and being at home while traveling, moving through seasons, enduring periods of change. “Establishing surroundings, rearranging furniture, moving towards the light, collecting flowers or other objects reminiscent of a river, a garden, a memory,” they write. “A gentle and careful process to make your surroundings feel open for playing, writing, caregiving, or resting.”

Høyland and Urd both studied at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, which has turned out acclaimed artists like Clarissa Connelly, Smerz, and Fine; over the past few years, the two musicians have developed a collaborative method based on connection and trust. A practice, they write, “where composing, or rather suggesting, sounds and melodies for one another is a way of carefully talking, mending emotions and obstacles. Saying yes to one another. The compositional space becomes a nest for entangling whatever emotions, thoughts, or barriers one of the composers brings to the given day or moment.”

Sonically, Duvet feels like an extension of Høyland’s last album, 2023’s Ode to Stone, which also featured Urd along with ambient musician Sofie Birch and visual artist Lea Guldditte Hestelund. But where that album, created in response to an open call for work themed around Denmark’s national parks, suggested rolling landscapes and endless horizons, Duvet turns inward, countering chill winds with glowing warmth. Its eight tracks seek a balance between abstraction and melody, intention and happenstance. “We had a truly inspiring and rewarding process working with Birk Gjerlufsen Nielsen from Vanessa Amara, who co-produced and mixed the album with us,” Ingri adds. “He approached the material with great care and sensitivity, while also bringing his own distinct presence and creativity into the sound.”

Quiet and contemplative, Duvet is simple on the surface but rich in timbral, textural, and emotional complexity. Høyland and Urd sourced their sounds from an array of instruments and techniques—electronic devices, modules, pedals, and also electroacoustic treatments of various wind instruments. Mixing primarily through analog tape units added further mystery and depth, weaving together wordless voices and unknown sounds—breathing, rustling, perhaps the coppery gleam of Urd’s electric bass—into a dynamic matrix. Like a nest, pull one twig and the whole thing unravels.