The keyboardist-composer Wayne Horvitz is perhaps best known for his work on the mid-1980’s genre-blurring, vanguardist New York downtown scene, especially in John Zorn's Naked City. But those who are up to date with the Seattle-born musician's activities will also have noted the wideranging diversity of his work these days, ranging from musical theatre to film composition. Horvitz's new album Some Places are Forever Afternoon stays with the idea of music as dialogue with another artistic medium. The album is a suite of 12 original compositions inspired by a series of poems by the last century American poet Richard Hugo. Published in an elegantly illustrated photo booklet, the words have special meaning for Horvitz as they describe the landscape of the American Northwest where Horvitz grew up and made a return two decades ago. Bearing a kinship to the more pastoral Americana chamber work of Joel Harrison and Bill Frisell, Horvitz conjures up a serene soundscape (there's a rare appearance of a bassoon played by Sara Schoenbeck) of creatively subtle textures to which the idiosyncratic jazz cornetist Ron Miles also makes a telling contribution.