After the first album "Wéris", released 2 years ago, this is the second full length CD, by the (still) largely unknown Walloon artists. The Dark Ambient / Martial Industrial / Ethereal / Neoclassical duo: Christophe De Nockere and Tim Dobbelaere hails from The Hautes Fagnes (The Ardennes), a high plateau with boggy heath and woods, windswept and rather wild. The nature lovers wrap their rough and unspoiled home in mythical sound creations. They had some trouble releasing it though. Successful was the second attempt with the French "Seventh Crow Records" label. A pity if those gems wouldn't have seen the light of day."Winter Ruins" is available since March as a regular CD and download from bandcamp. They took obvious effort in elaborating the 11 tracks, everything sounds thought through, well mixed and produced. There are no cheap synthies, as heard in Polish or Ukrainian music for example, where the material is unlovingly put together on the desktop. I clearly sense analogue percussion and miscellaneous stringed and plucked instruments brought in by themselves. The sound creeps in the listeners ears by through-composed structures and arrangements full of atmosphere. "Winter Ruins" also fits brillant in late summer/early autumn, where mild nights left us for good. Its predecessor "Wéris" sounds much more ambient, whereas the second album is mature and wide-ranging.On Arduinna's YouTube channel the artwork becomes apparent. Three quarters of the album tracks are presented online in consistent b/w landscape imagery filmed by the band. It offers a different perspective on the music, and lets enough space for the listeners to dwell on.My personal favorite is "Aigéan", dynamically swinging itself up, dark brooding synthie bass-lines, stepped up by large drums. Furthermore "Eryi" and "Amaroq" are impressive titles too.They mention on their facebook page, that it is planned to collaborate with guest vocalist Alessia Cicala from "Atrium Animae" on the next album. This will give an additional boost to the band's fortune, and lift them further towards their peers "Sephiroth" or "Arcana".http://wolfhall.org/shtml/mu_re.shtml#ard