A GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS

This is a new instalment in the prolonged saga of collaborations that John Zorn periodically proposes to an elite of top notch instrumentalists who are entrusted to visit his musical concepts. Now comes the turn for guitarists, and once again the guitar and brilliance of Bill Frisell is here to lead the trio proceedings.

The album title refers to a well-known short story by Jorge Luis Borges (El Jardín De Senderos Que Se Bifurcan) which is a particularly accomplished variation on a prime topic in Borgean narrative: labyrinths. There are also a nod to Samuel Beckett in the opener, which presents an appropriately intrincate intertwined design given by the trio interplay. The Secret Mirror is more like a curve ball, since it's a fictive stage play depicted in another Borges short story, An Examination Of The Work Of Herbert Quain (Examen De La obra De Herbert Quain). This is a track verging into contemporary chamber music a la Oregon, with great taste for it. In the same Borgean vein we find also Circular Ruins (Las Ruinas Circulares), reminding the League Of Crafty Guitarists style, The Zahir (perhaps the calmest track), The Encounter, and finally Orbus Tertius (Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius), a story about a conspiracy of schollars who write and insidiously spread an encyclopedia about an invented universe, which takes the place of the actual one in the end. Also appropriately, this is the most angular moment for the trio, and a high mark for their musicianship in this album.

In short, very good instrumental music with provocative literary references, there's a certain air to the guitaristic passages in Oregon's music, particularly in the jazzier moments (which are many).