The duo of composer and violinist Stefan Wesolowski and electronic producer Piotr Kalinski was praised by Boiler Room, The Wire or NPR, and Bob Boilen of Tiny Desk Concerts called Nanook of the North's concert during the famous SXSW Festival in the USA one of the "wow" moment of SXSW. The project was an initiative of the Sopot Film Festival – the musicians were invited to perform an improvised score to Robert J. Flaherty's classic 1922 documentary Nanook of the North. To faithfully capture and deepen the atmosphere of the film, the duo travelled to Iceland – the album was recorded in Reykjavík and mixed in Greenland. Despite capturing the atmosphere of the frozen wilderness depicted in the film, the album has a more universal feel and does not fall into the trap of dystopian cityscapes. Nanook of the North evokes a wealth of images, scenarios and atmospheres much like the subsequent scenes of the film.