Swedish singer-songwriter Sofia Talvik has been writing Christmas songs for a decade and a half now and this year is no exception. With a tendency to focus on the darker elements of the season (come on, who doesn’t love a ghost story at Christmas), this year her song ‘AT Christmas’ is inspired by the dangers a friend encountered when he nearly died while following the Appalachian Trail.
With subtle strings and gentle guitar work, there’s a real focus on the despair in the lyrics – think Joni Mitchell or Haley Heynderickx – which capture the dangers of exploration: ‘Nature tells us when it’s time to hunker down, the north wind blows you further away from town. You walk in circles in the whirling snow. There’s a shelter waiting somewhere below.’