Nostalgic dispatches from a former Soviet mining town in Arctic Norway punctuate this excerpt from The Ghost of Piramida, a film project initiated by the Copenhagen-based band Efterklang and directed by fellow Dane Andreas Koefoed. Soundtracked by the synth-laden “Apples,” footage of band members in the majestic Svalbard archipelago is overlaid with projections of home movies belonging to a retired Russian miner named Alexander Ivanovic Naomkin. The found tapes document domestic life in the former colony Piramida before its desertion in the 90s—an era that was difficult to comprehend for the visitors. “What we saw up there is a place that is clearly not for humans,” says bassist Rasmus Stolberg. “The land is too strong to cultivate and settle in.” The unworldly setting furnished the band with over 1,000 samples to incorporate into last year’s album Piramida, while abandoned machinery and tumbledown shacks were utilised in the creation of new instruments. “We have always worked with field recordings,” says Stolberg. “We wanted to start with an expedition and then base the initial songwriting on these experiments.” The grainy moving images of cheerful swimmers and optimistic settlers chime with the band’s sonic themes exploring memory, the power of nostalgia and the transience of meaningful human connection—all central to The Ghost of Piramida, which premiered to much acclaim at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam last November. As a part of this groundbreaking project, Efterklang and Andreas Koefoed invite fans to host “private-public” screenings in their own cities, available on application until March 13.