The second full-length album of the St. Petersburg folk ambient project Mira Drevo is dedicated to the numerous abandoned villages of the Russian North. The idea of this work came to the author during ethnographic trips inspired by the interest in Russian folklore and village culture. In these expeditions many field recordings were collected: the stories of the elderly – about an uneasy life, war, beliefs and traditions, about what’s around and what’s inside; creaking floorboards of abandoned houses; dogs barking in the neighbourhood; rustling of spirits in the branches of dead apple trees; sounds of a cranberry swamp… Additional recordings were made on Solovki, on the Vottovaara mountain and in the Karelian woods. Some of the acoustic instruments were captured during these trips on a portable recorder and later woven into the fabric of minimalistic synthesizer ambient. A significant contribution to the sound of this album was made by the soulful vocals of Anastasiya Kharchenko who sang several folk songs and lyric poems.