Nigel Gavin: Thrum

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)

Auckland guitarist Gavin is a musical polymath. He is a gifted player and songwriter; delivers good-humoured klezmer folk-jazz with the Jews Brothers; swings in the Hot Club jazz style with the Nairobi Trio; was the founder of the acoustic guitar group Gitbox Rebellion, and was a member of Robert Fripp's highly disciplined travelling guitar ensemble the League of Crafty Guitarists. Until recently, however, he hasn't recorded under his own name.

Two months ago his stylistically inclusive Music for Flem acted as a calling card. It was a series of improvisations and material for imaginary films which showcased a guitarist who could play across the spectrum from funky Tom Waits-styled stuff to gentle Pacific melodies.

Thrum - which finds him on a custom-built seven-string acoustic - offers a narrower range of styles and, for most listeners, is the better for it. That isn't to say this broadcasts on narrow frequency, not at all.

The dextrous playing on Nebuchadnezzar belies its dark undercurrents; The Mosquito captures the frisky flight of that irritating insect; there's a welcome repeat performance of the amusingly funky Connecticut Yankee (which appeared on a Fripp/Crafty Guitarists album); On My Father's Side Show has suggestions of Celtic-folk; and Yezidi Circle has an appropriately ancient Middle Eastern feel, sort of Mesopotamian folk if you will. The elegant Flossy takes a lead from Greensleeves and goes somewhere else but equally romantic.

Yet this diversity, and there is more, is unified by Gavin's restraint and sure reading of his melodic compass. If you only buy one acoustic guitar album this month and it isn't Music for Flem ...

Label: Rouge