Guitarist goes it alone on , his sophomore outing for / after 2020's funky . It also follows 2016's ( ) as his second solo guitar offering. Throughout his three-decade career with , , and as a sideman, 's playing has been marked by clean lines and an uncluttered approach to harmony, tone, texture, and rhythm. He often favors the role of ensemble player to soloist, and he's both on . The set was recorded in his home studio and juxtaposes six originals and a pair of covers, 's "Ugly Beauty," and the standard "My Ideal." Opener "Off Om" is a brief, hypnotically rendered intro that resembles a nursery rhyme. joins several interlocking melodic statements with circular, nearly infectious counterpoint in an earworm for the listener. composed "Four Folks" with in 1996 and first recorded it with . His droning thematic statement delivered in warm, rounded tones opens the harmonic frame on several ideas that interrogates; it creates an entirely other soundworld that unveils several more consonant melodic layers. His reading of "My Ideal" retains its recognizable form as he combines lyric and rhythmic vamps to excavate -- with glorious ostinatos -- subtle chromatic feints that inform the elegant melody. Single "Suffolk" (the subject of a wonderful video by interdisciplinary artist ) opens gradually with restrained drones and overtones. When delivers the rhythmically pulsed melody, he recalls the sound of a griot playing a kora; multiple strings pick out and spin off fragmentary elements of the whole showcasing its intricate complexity. Just as the listener grasps one body of sounds, shifts focus and highlights another section's adventurous resonance. "Ugly Beauty" is introduced plaintively with balancing the changes and melody sans effects. In the second chorus he introduces reverb and subtle drone layers while dissecting the changes; it allows his sonic and tonal tenets room for expansion inside the overarching theme. At nearly 11 minutes, "Excess Success" is the longest tune here. It's composed entirely of intersecting bass and comp lines, constantly involved in exchange and complement along a lithe yet funky phrasing pulse that allows for harmonic extrapolation and subtraction to deliver a spiral of color, texture, and spidery grooves. The guitarist originally cut "La Jetee" with vanguard supergroup . He offers its moody intro with circular fingerpicking on the changes. A minute-and-a-half in, again employing all bass and comp lines, he touches on the original melody with a different harmonic emphasis, dislocating its central statement with something more fragmental, but no less alluring. ' package contains a liner essay by 's longtime friend and colleague ; his insight into the guitarist's process is at once authoritative and revelatory. is as welcoming as it is musically adventurous. Void of production or virtuosic solo excesses, it allows the listener inside the guitarist's soundworld for an instinctively guided, infectiously listenable tour. ~ Thom Jurek