Yorkshire-born composer and musician Martin Archer made his name as a saxophonist on the UK free improv scene of the 1980s and early 1990s before moving into synthesizers and electronics; for more than two decades now he has released his music on the Discus label he co-founded in 1994. Anthony Braxton was an early influence, and Story Tellers finds Archer again acknowledging his debt to AACM: the album dedicated to Muhal Richard Abrams, Leo Smith and Roscoe Mitchell. It is divided into six books, each further subdivided into chapters and each with the same structure: there is a sense, as the liners acknowledge, in which we get six versions of the same piece. Monotony is avoided thanks to the imagination of the musicians, and a little ‘creative editing’: a few of the chapters were created entirely in post-production, with Archer going all Teo Macero (Miles Davis electric era). The feel is of shifting sands, a slowly twisting kaleidoscope; only the odd incongruous guitar tone juts out.