Those who find avant-garde jazz and free improvisation to be too abrasive are advised to check out this album, on which guitarist is joined by bass wizard , drummer , and downtown legend on electric and acoustic harp. Make no mistake about it, this music (some of which is composed and some improvised) is definitely challenging: tonal centers, when they exist, shift unpredictably, and and in particular make almost constant use of extended techniques that allow them to pull otherworldly sounds from their instruments. But the musical textures are generally quite delicate, and even when the music is atonal it's often very beautiful, even by conventional measures. in particular, features some lovely passages on which interlocked harp and guitar arpeggios march gently beneath 's quietly wailing line of artificial harmonics, and the startlingly tortured sounds that elicits from her electric harp on (one of the more difficult pieces on this album) are lots of fun. Melodically, is clearly influenced by , but his tone and execution are all his, and his compositions reward the effort it sometimes takes to follow them. Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson