But there’s also an element of throwback to this. In some ways, Made of Oak is reminding me of their ancestors, like Land of the Loops, with synth moments that build towards crescendos without ever feeling obnoxiously loud or demanding.

At the same time, Made of Oak is at the top of the atmospheric game, competing with Alt-J at their very instrumental best. While Penumbra doesn’t go as far outside the box as something like Arca (Made of Oak sounds like it was still made by a human), the music still has the ability to surprise.

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Singer Amelia Meath’s dreamy voice and strange, but fascinating style takes off immediately in Hey Mami, but I think it really takes off with Wolf and Dress. Coffee and Play It Right are other standouts.

Producer Nick Sanborn, the other half of this duo, serves up a delicious serving of sparse synth tracks throughout the record, but it’s really in the way he matches the instrumentation (which often sound dark and melodramatic) with Meath’s voice. He’ll often layer her voice and use it as a backing track, letting Meath play off herself.

In a lot of ways, this isn’t too dissimilar from some of Timbaland’s production work — half the instruments are organic, and the other half are purely electronic. The organic instruments are almost entirely a cappella, or vocally driven. Despite the record being almost entirely synths-driven (and often very dark), it feels natural and warm as a result. The album is dense and intricate, but also sparse.

This stands up with Foxes’ Glorious and St. Vincent’s latest record for the best of 2014 for me, and I couldn’t recommend Sylvan Esso’s eponymous debut more. In working together to find widely-appealing sonic styles that both Meath and Sanborn are comfortable with, the duo has stumbled upon something original and impossibly endearing.

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