This album can be described as a suite for digital strings, along with various other instruments: oboe, flute, trumpet, and cello. It is a suite of tone-poems depicting the various cloud textures which appear in the skies of northern Canada during the cold months of the year. The composer uses a style of writing which he describes as romantic minimalism: "repetition of small melodic/harmonic cells, rendered with deep feeling, meant to elicit certain emotions which this sullen scenery inspires". This is a sister album to Danna's later work, North of Niagara. Both works are intensely involved with an exploration of the natural world from the romantic-minimalist perspective. Whereas North of Niagara is mainly a summer album, Skys is mainly a winter album: it is sullen, melancholy, dark, and majestic.
