Link to Streaming Service (YouTube Recommended)
https://foxhyode.bandcamp.com/track/fragments

Description
The Frozen Waste is a place where time stands still. In its silence, every moment feels endless, as if the world itself has forgotten to move forward. Loneliness hangs heavy in the air, stretching across the frozen horizon, where echoes fade before they can find a listener. Yet within this stillness, something stirs—a fleeting motion rising like a distant breath, a small climax breaking the silence before fading again. In the end, all returns to calm, as if nothing had ever disturbed fragments of time.

[Photos (EinelTheFox)]
These are just here for the vibe. They've been taken on last years trip to the Lofoten (Norway), so they are technically above the arctic circle. Since I didn't have my camera back then, the photos have been taken with my cell phone, so that's the reason for the mediocre picture quality.

Description of Setup (Optional but recommended)
Plugins Used:

Strings: Cinematic Studio Strings

Piano: Two free libraries from Pianobook
Soft Piano: Custom Piano build in Pianoteq 8 based on a Yamaha U4 upright

Synths [FoxHyode]: All synths were hand-crafted in Phase Plant, either from pure synthesis or custom sampling. A large part of the sound design involves granular processing, particularly using the reverb tail of a single piano note to build the mid-section pads. These are blended with acoustic instruments to create a “brightness” layer, most noticeable during the build-up to the first climax. Many reverse effects were also implemented, including heavily processed piano transformed into a shimmering analog-style lead.

synths [Einel]: In addition to the outboard gear I also used 2 software synths. 1) a simulation of a Roland Mercury 6 by CherryAudio for some high pitched arpegios and 2) a simulation of an Yamaha DX7 by Arturia for some nice single lines in the background. Both are based on presets but edited to taste.

Twisted Electrons MEGAfm: A little hardware synth based on an FM-chip used in the SEGA MegaDrive. The patches used are custom created and used for some Rhodes like sounds, leads, and plucks. After recording the sounds are further enhanced in DAW.

Korg MS20. Legendary simple mono synth. Used for some wind noises and a custom breathy soft synth.

Bass: Entirely designed in Phase Plant, no samples used.

Percussion: I prefer to separate each individual sound for maximum control, so the percussion section alone spans 12 dedicated tracks, allowing detailed automation, panning, and FX work., I used XO by XLN Audio.

Bass Clarinet: A custom synth built in Phase Plant using a sample of Einel’s Bass Clarinet, designed to add warmth and an airy texture, occasionally doubling the main bass line for depth.

Fender Telecaste: Used together with a lightly pushed Fender Twin

Wind noises [Einel]: Doubling the synth wind patch I’ve created some wind noises with my mouth, covering it with my hands and closing and opening it to act as an additional filter.

Lessons Learned
It is always a big challenge doing collaboration but we learn to make compromise and learn from each other, we also make some happy accidents that ends up being that main part of the track.