Music IS

"It's 18 years since the guitarist's last solo album, Ghost Town (Nonesuch). That album had Frisell playing electric and acoustic guitars, 6-string banjo, loops and bass; for the new one subtract the banjo, and add ukulele and music boxes. The overall way of working is the same. Bill lays down a little guitar melody and then subtly augments it over the course of its two to six minutes with overlaid guitar, bass, or other plucked strings ... The new album is more concise (the track lengths are generally shorter) and while they still have space (uncannily even more space) there are a lot more ideas and a wider array of musical colours packed in ... The range of styles is wide. "Winslow Homer", for example, sounds, slightly disconcertingly, like he could be the long-lost Nashville child of Thelonious Monk, while "Change In The Air" opens up an interstellar vastness, and "Ron Carter" (...) has the form and gravitas of a traditional tune passed down from campfire to campfire".