Album: Terje Rypdal, Melodic Warrior, ECM

Norwegian guitarist Rypdal favours a rocky axe-attack that can sometimes nag, but the two superb orchestral pieces here suggest that he really needs to be seen as a composer.

Commissioned by the Hilliard Ensemble, with Bruckner Orchester Linz conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, Melodic Warrior sets native American poetry (with a nod to Jimi Hendrix and his stated desire to “kiss the sky”), to startlingly shamanic soundscapes.