I'm not usually much taken with press releases, but I have to say Emancipator's list of achievements is quite impressive

'Emancipator escaped from the Underground Railroad Chain Gang in the 11th century. He invented the hot air balloon, with which he chartered the Amazon River. He invented wine.

Emancipator found the formula for the crystallization of ice during a quiet Japanese winter. He perfected the art of agriculture. He can climb trees faster than you.'

And not least amongst his achievements, in 2007 Emancipator released a pretty cool chill out album in the vein of  Sigur Ros, Bent et al.

At first listen, 'Soon It Will Be Cold Enough' is a fluid amalgam of seminal lounge artists. The first track, 'Eve', for example, contains icy droplets of keyboard a la Mike Oldfield combined with wordless vocals that are melodically very similar to Royskopp's 'So Easy', only here they are muffled and swathed in effects until they sound like winter wind.

'Eve' is followed by 'Soon It Will Be Cold Enough to Build Fires' which is, ironically, a much warmer track that throws in brief, soft snatches of brass and cut up vocals with the same sense of playful mischief as Nightmares on Wax, and creates a gently euphoric track.

'Smoke Signals' is a soft hopscotch of birdsong and electric guitar that skips and fizzes along while tracks such as 'Anthem' and 'Lionheart' contain entrancing threads of violin, at times with melody and tone as harsh as Chinese folk, at others more Western, pseudo-classical and occasionally dancing somewhere in between.

Thao Nguyen provides lazily sensual vocals for example on 'When I Go' where she sounds reminiscent of  Roisin Murphy, an irresistible mix of 'come hither' allure and smoky, drawling indifference.

And by now, I seem to have covered the album in post-it notes pointing out perceived influences which does it a great disservice because throughout its fourteen songs, and complimenting its crisp, winter theme, there is a freshness to it all that comes not just from the clean production and sweet melodies, but from the sense that this is a small, windblown project hanging faint in the ether without  marketing budget or the taint of faustian pacts with ad agencies involving car or telecommunication companies.

As a result, it's a precious thing - a case of synchronicity between songs and themes and presentation. A small winter gem.