Pat Metheny Orchestrion ***

A labour of love and most probably the only album you’re going to hear all year to feature an orchestrion (a kind ofplayer piano but for lots of instrumentsall triggered from Metheny’s guitar), the album opens with the long 15-minutetitle track which follows on from thesuite-like inclinations of Metheny’s previous album The Way Up. The latter part of the record is in more melodicterritory with two terrific tunes, ‘SoulSearch’ and ‘Spirit in the Air’ which could easily become fixtures in Metheny’s live set list long after the Orchestriontour ends. The weird thingabout this album – an astonishing testament to Metheny’s skill as amusician and composer – is that it sounds very much like a Pat MethenyGroup album without the Group! The orchestrion may be a bit of a gimmickbut the album more than repays all the blood, sweat and tears that went into it.

Stephen Graham