British guitarist and composer has enjoyed a prolific, varied six-decade career. At 15, he joined the and played on many James Bond soundtracks. He subsequently led an early jazz fusion quartet that released several iconic recordings, then spent decades as a composer, arranger, producer, and session player on thousands of sound library sessions. He worked with , and won awards for his own film and television soundtracks. is 's first album since 2015's , an explosive avant octet collaboration with . was recorded by and , solo and amid a cast of old friends. Its 52 minutes of new material delivers the closest thing we have to a career overview as it touches on the many aesthetic aspects of 's musical life, solo and in ensembles. "Escaping the Six-String Cage" is a ten-minute soundscape comprised of in-studio improvising, ambience, sampled drum and flute loops, as well as a section from plays over and around the atmospherics, mating ethereality to thrumming beat consciousness. "Turn Right at Ventura" features a quartet with clarinetist , drummer , bassist , and keyboardist . It journeys from bluesy hard rock to acrobatic, soulful fusion and out jazz, before settling in an uneasy middle ground. On "Endure," a duo with , plays bass and guitar. It weds a lithe funk vamp to chromatic guitar fills that are restless to break out. ' fat breaks offer a sea change, and delivers a screaming, knotty solo drenched in prismatic blues and psych. The quartet on "We Go Back a Short Way" is comprised of drummer on drums, on bass and Chapman Stick, and on keys. 's intro riff engenders post-bop swing from the rhythm section. The guitarist explores North African modalism like it's an action soundtrack motif. He adds drifting chords to decenter the vamp, then solos along edgy chromatic lines. "One for Geoff" is a short acoustic tribute to late keyboardist , a longtime collaborator and friend. "Six In -- Six Out" begins slowly and tensely before transforming itself into scorching fusion with 's wailing soprano sax, ' pile-driving kit, and 's painterly keys. They create a dynamic textural backdrop for 's fragmented, multi-tracked tonalities, ominous chord voicings, and soaring leads. Closer "A Room Within a Room," with , and bassist , choogles along a spacy progression rife with sonic EFX and hypnotic riffing. 's solo lurches from arpeggiatic jazz to flamenco and , while 's avant tenor playing recalls the snaky free jazz on 's . Eventually, they find a progression and explode into meaty exploratory fusion. The diverse musicality on doesn't sum up 's career. Instead, it reveals the way his past informs his present, and how the moment of creation intuits the future. ~ Thom Jurek