What was I supposed to make of a band called Kolm, and an album called Yūgen? Was this, perhaps, some Scandinavian outfit dredging up ancient Norse words to baffle English speakers? A quick look at the track list threw up other strange titles: Olēka and Dès Vu, for example. Definitely not British, then. On the other hand, we also have the philosophical Ex Nihilo, the biological Mycelia and Symbiosis, and the faintly mysterious, but undoubtedly English, Signal : Becoming, The Reach and The Passing.

With a shrug, I turned to the Internet. Yūgen, it says, is Japanese for beauty so subtle and profound that we have no words for it. (But that’s a contradiction, isn’t it?) The other track titles with accented letters turn out to be words made up by the author of the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: Olēka is “The Awareness of How Few Days Are Memorable” and Dès Vu means “The Awareness That This Moment Will Become a Memory”.

OK, I’m beginning to get the picture. These guys refuse to be labelled. We’ll just have to listen to their songs.

Our journey starts with a soft drone and far off voices. A foraging party is gathering. We have been promised a mindful stroll through forest undergrowth. Our guide tells us about the fungi at our feet. About how their spindly tentacles spread through the soil. A network that nourishes the woodland flora. Mycelia. We can hear the unmistakeable sound of a Pineapple Thief scurrying through the trees. If this is communing with nature, I want more of it.

We move on, and the feeling that this is going to be an unusually memorable day intensifies. Olēka. The creatures of the forest are making mournful sounds: “my heart is broken”, they seem to say. The ground may be damp with tears, but the air is warm and fresh, and dappled light is shining through the trees. This is such a lovely place that sadness cannot last for long.

Our guide signals us to gather round. We will be coming back this way later, but now it’s time to press on.

For a moment, the harsh sounds of heavy industry reach us on the wind. But it cannot disturb the tranquility of this cool and leafy place. Life thrives here. The trees photosynthesise the sugars that feed the fungi and, in return, the fungi extract water, phosphorus, nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil. This is Nature in perfect harmony, Symbiosis in action.

The forager-in-chief explains that this patch of land was once a coal mine. Many years ago, the pit head, winding room and ancillary buildings were demolished, leaving just a gaping scar on the land. The nature reserve we see today was created from nothing but bare earth and spoil heaps. Ex Nihilo. As he speaks, a strong sense of Dès Vu creeps over me. I know there will be times to come when the memory of this day will interrupt my thoughts, unbidden, but always welcome.

No-one notices the passing of time. Have we been here for minutes or hours? Somehow, the question is meaningless in the midst of such natural beauty. Unnameable beauty in English. But the Japanese call it Yūgen.