MoonDial
is
Pat Metheny
's second consecutive solo guitar album. It follows 2023's
Dream Box
(for electric guitar). While on that album's support tour, he played solo for more than two hours a night. During the concerts and later on the bus, he reflected on the various, sometimes profound differences between his solo recordings. He contacted luthier
Linda Manzer
, a longtime collaborator, and requested she build him an acoustic baritone guitar that could be played with nylon, rather than steel strings. The challenge was finding nylon strings that could take the pressure of the tuning he wanted to use, with a tonal range that can move from a resonant deep bass to a high-pitched ringing resembling a bell. Magma, an Argentine company, met his needs. He used the guitar on the rest of the
tour.
During the tour's first break,
Metheny
took the instrument into the recording studio. He cut tunes he specifically composed for the instrument, revisited earlier tunes, and cut several covers including standards, show tunes, a folk song, and a
Beatles
number. The sound on
reflects his iconic playing signature and is the third in an instrumental conceptual trilogy that began with 2004's
One Quiet Night
and continued on 2011's
What's It All About
.
The title-track opener showcases the range of tonalities on the instrument as
cuts across nuevo flamenco, modal blues, and post-bop. Over more than six minutes, its various sections and recurrent lyric themes resemble a suite. The set's third track is a gorgeous reading of
Chick Corea
's "You're Everything." It's followed by a tender, lilting read of
Lennon
&
McCartney
's "Here There and Everywhere," a tune he's been performing live for years. Though this set is absent overdubs,
's playing in that unique tuning approximates the sound of two guitars played simultaneously. He follows the intricate, lushly melodic "Falcon Love" with a medley reading of
Matt Dennis
' standard "Everything Happens to Me" and
Leonard Bernstein
's "Somewhere"; the guitarist's canny segue expands the drama and resonance of both tunes. He delivers the traditional "Londonderry Air," stripping it to its harmonic -- not lyric -- essence. "This Belongs to You¿ was recorded in 2012 with
Pat Metheny Unity Group
, but here it sounds like it was always intended as a solo piece, full of tiny details and natural reverb. "Shoga," the most uptempo track here, traces a path all the way back to the rhythm playing in the title track of 1979's
New Chautauqua
, his first solo guitar album. His haunting take of
David Raskin
's "My Love and I" originally appeared in the film score for 1954's
Burt Lancaster
vehicle Apache. He follows it with a deeply moving rendition of
' now canonical jazz standard "Angel Eyes." The album closes with a bookend reprise of the title cut. This deeply nuanced, lyrical set is described by its creator as "a hardcore mellow, dusk-to-sunrise record, full of 'intense contemplation.'" If you appreciate
's acoustic guitar recordings,
will undoubtedly delight, and its elegance folds seamlessly into its predecessors'. ~ Thom Jurek