It’s surreal how some albums almost seem to shape your surroundings, isn’t it? At the time of writing this, it’s a blustery summer evening—the wind’s picked up, the rain’s falling, there are claps of thunder in the distance. And through my headphones, the title track on Noah’s new album Sivutie is playing, a delicate and haunting track that blurs the lines between dark ambient, avant-garde and sensual R&B, rolling to a close with its own raps of thundery atmospherics. It’s pretty uncanny to experience music that’s so in sync with your surroundings.

Sivutie is more than just a record for sparse moments, though—it lingers in the mind for days, capturing you like a black hole captures a child’s imagination when they see one for the first time. Noah, a 27-year-old Japanese artist who is otherwise nameless, grew up in the idyllic Hokkaido Prefecture, which anyone who’s familiar with their Murakami novels will know explains her sensuousness and smoke-filled vocals. For the most part, Sivutie plays out like a potential soundtrack for a Murakami adaptation, capturing the isolation, melancholy and beauty that most of his characters experience at some point in their lives.

Conceived around a girl’s mysterious world in a night dream, Sivutie is as intriguing as its premise. “Sivutie” is actually a Finnish word for “side road,” which can’t be coincidental, as every so often tracks like “Weak” and “Flaw” take us from the snowy Japanese suburbs and into sparse and bleak open Finnish roads. There’s a chill in the air throughout the album that resembles the breeze coming in through the open window on Grouper’s gorgeous album Ruins. Songs like “Pool Garden” are more likely to make you want to curl up in bed than go running into the pouring rain.

Cinematic, widescreen and wonderfully serene, Sivutie is an exploration of beauty, landscapes, dreams, thoughts and feelings. It’s a fantastically down-to-earth record that’s just as suitable for walks after rain as it is chilling on the beach, though the former will carry a heavier and more profound effect. Allowing Noah to take you by the hand through her dream world might just be the cathartic trip you need as the nights gradually grow darker, but it’s also the perfect soundtrack to any dim light situation. A stunning and captivating record.

Sivutie is out now via flau Records.