Ellen Arkbro’s fourth album Nightclouds collects five improvisations for solo organ recorded across Central Europe in 2023–24. Nightclouds is more unabashedly Romantic and introspective than her previous efforts though it remains firmly rooted in the rigor and precision that have come to define Arkbro’s concept. Extending her previous explorations of spatialized harmony tactility and texture Arkbro draws equally on sacred music ECM–style jazz and downtown minimalism conjuring a cool intimacy and tone. Her decelerationist chordal improvisations envelop the listener in dirge-like washes while her close miking reveals the rough haptic grain of the reeds bringing the listener both inside and outside the sound. Evoking Kjell Johnsen and Jan Garbarek’s duets or La Monte Young and Tony Conrad’s take on Euringer and Harmer’s cowboy song “Oh Bury Me Not” Nightclouds channels spiritual pathos through a rigorously restrained architecture.