Altus (Mike Carss) hails from Ottawa, Canada and is a fairly new addition to the ambient scene. His first release was made public in 2001, although has been honing his musical skills since 1993.

A firm believer that the net should be a place of sharing, all albums are released to the public for free. In the case of "Winter Embrace II", all money from sales goes to help run the free ambient radio site StillStream.com.

StillStream was and still is a pivotal step towards spreading Altus' music to the ambient masses.