[1][2] In an interview with The Scotsman, Grime remarked, "I liked the idea [Eardley] was out in the open doing these paintings, persistently trying to get closer to what she was trying to achieve, to the extent that if the sky shifted, she'd move quickly to a fresh canvass to capture the fast changing light."
The composer thus approached the two works as musical canvases created back-to-back, adding, "I was interested in using exactly the same base material for each piece, but hearing it in different ways.” Grime described "Catterline in Winter" as "darker and slower," where "Snow" is "brighter and faster."
Reviewing the world premiere of "Catterline in Winter," The Scotsman wrote, "A smooth wash of sound as the low brass and woodwind growled a heterophonic chorale; skittery dashes of colour, and watercolour effects from the chimes: this was visually-evocative music, clean-textured and filled with light, the contrast between hard-edged brass and mellow strings setting up a constant tension.
"[6] Reviewing a later performance of "Snow," the same publication wrote that it "proved a compelling synthesis of frenetic busyness and needle-sharp definition, its wildness warmly checked by languid swathes of folk melody.
"[7] Tim Ashley of The Guardian similarly described "Snow" as "attractively scored" and wrote, "It takes as its starting point 'The Scranky Black Farmer,' a traditional song from the same region, heard at the outset on the clarinets, then shuttled from instrument to instrument in a series of variations, which in turn form the effective landscape across which scurrying figurations and slowly shifting string chords suggest the flurries and drifts of snow.