Natural Snow Buildings is a duo from France, consisting of artists Mehdi Ameziane and Solange Gularte. They play music which can be classified as experimental psychedelic folk with drone elements and ambient influences. Formed in 1997, they released numerous albums, many of them in extremely limited quantities.

Both members of Natural Snow Buildings release music also as solo artists: Mehdi Ameziane as TwinSisterMoon and Solange Gularte as Isengrind.

History

The beginnings of Natural Snow Buildings can be traced back to 1997, at a Paris university. They both met in their school library where a movie was playing. Mehdi had been invited to a party that evening but declined and headed to the library instead. After their first meeting, the two saw more of each other. Although Mehdi could play a bit of guitar and Solange was a classically trained musician, the two had not yet begun making music.

It was in May 1998 that the two officially started their band and began home recording their music. They self-released two cassettes, Witch-Season and Two Sides of a Horse in 1999 and 2000, and in 2001 recorded Ghost Folks, released in 2003. Then, they self-released a double CD, The Winter Ray, in a limited edition, and, after moving from Paris to Vitré

Vitré

Vitré may refer to communes in France:* Vitré, Ille-et-Vilaine* Vitré, Deux-Sèvres...

 in 2004, recorded The Dance of the Moon and the Sun (released in 2006). They then each issued solo material before producing more material as a duo.

Most of their albums have only been released in small numbers, often in hand-crafted limited editions. Their work has been compared with such bands as Popol Vuh

Popol Vuh (German band)

Popol Vuh was a German electronic avantgarde band, in the mainstream-media so called Krautrock, founded by pianist and keyboardist Florian Fricke in 1969 together with Holger Trülzsch and Frank Fiedler...

, Flying Saucer Attack

Flying Saucer Attack

Flying Saucer Attack was an experimental space rock band that formed in Bristol, England in 1992. David Pearce was the core member of the group, and Rachel Brook was a member for most of the band's lifetime....

, and Tower Recordings. They make many references to the horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 genre in their songtitles; for example Santa Sangre

Santa Sangre

Santa Sangre is a 1989 Mexican-Italian surrealist film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni...

 (with the track 'Santa Sangre Part I & II' on 'Daughter of Darkness'), The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur footage. The film was produced by the Haxan Films production company. The film relates the story of three student filmmakers The Blair Witch Project is a 1999 American horror film pieced together from amateur...

 (The track 'Mary Brown' on 'Dance of the Moon and the Sun' is a reference to a character from this film) and director John Carpenter

John Carpenter

John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...

(a track on 'Dance of the Moon and the Sun').

Albums

• 2003 - Ghost Folks
• 2004 - The Winter Ray
• 2006 - The Dance of the Moon and the Sun
• 2008 - Between The Real And The Shadow
• 2008 - Sung To The North
• 2008 - The Snowbringer Cult (CD 2)
• 2008 - Laurie Bird
• 2008 - Slayer of the King Hell
• 2008 - The Wheel of Sharp Daggers
• 2008 - Night Coercion Into the Company of Witches
• 2008 - Sunlit Stone (released with a special edition of re-issued 'The Dance of the Moon and the Sun')
• 2009 - Daughter of Darkness
• 2009 - Daughter of Darkness V
• 2009 - Shadow Kingdom
• 2010 - The Centauri Agent
• 2011 - Waves of the Random Sea
• 2011 - Chants of Niflheim

Compilations

• 2008 - I Dream of Drone (5CDr box set, only one copy produced & given free to a friend of the band: Jed B)
• 2008 - Tracks on the Bloody Snow (CDr, 2 known versions: one with brown sleeve, one with red. Compilation of early recordings 1998/1999)

Albums

• 2007 - When Stars Glide Through Solid
• 2007 - Levels and Crossings
• 2008 - The Snowbringer Cult (Tracks 9-16 on CD 1)
• 2009 - The Hollow Mountain
• 2010 - Then Fell The Ashes

Albums

• 2007 - Golestân
• 2008 - The Snowbringer Cult (Tracks 1-8 on CD 1)
• 2009 - Journey of the Seven Stars
• 2010 - Modlitewnik