As with his previous 2014 release Guitar in the Space Age, Bill Frisell continues to mine 1950s-60s popular music culture for inspiration on his new recording for OKeh, the recently revamped Sony imprint. This time though he brings his inimitable signature to film and TV themes predominantly from the same era. His band is the guitar trio which recorded Beautiful Dreamers in 2008, with the addition of the distinctive Thomas Morgan on bass and sometime collaborator Petra Haden on vocals. The strongest selections are the suite-like arrangements of themes including Elmer Bernstein’s haunting ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ which is given a country and folk-rock music makeover with Frisell and viola player Eyvind Kang setting it off beautifully. ‘Fairwell to Cheyenne’ gives Ennio Morricone a reggae-ish twist and the themes from Psycho benefit from some Frisellian humour.

Petra Haden sings wordless vocal on Morricone’s ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’, and the lyrics of title themes such as ‘You Only Live Twice’, ‘Moon River’ and the album’s title track, songs that are by now over-familiar are refreshed somewhat with a dry sentimentality and a vocal that’s tuned sensitively to Frisell’s arrangements. It’s a beautifully-sculpted chamber strings soundscape and the guitarist’s artfully layered, soulful mesh of overtones, rockabilly twang and other effects he’s made his own comes with his usual impeccable taste.