Grouper — Ruins

Liz Harris made Ruins in Aljezur, Portugal, in 2011, during a residency arranged by Galeria Zé dos Bois. It is an admitted cheat for a list of outdoor records — she was indoors — but the windows were open and the outside is half of what you hear.

The equipment was a portable four-track, a Sony stereo microphone and an upright piano. Frogs, rain and a passing storm sit alongside the songs rather than behind them. At one point the power fails and returns; the microwave's beep is left in the recording.

Harris described it as the first time she had sat still for a few years, and as a document of a daily walk to the beach through the ruins of old estates and a small village. "Failed structures. Living in the remains of love." She left the songs the way they arrived. Kranky released it in October 2014; the special edition came with a bonus disc of a thunderstorm recorded in Aljezur.