In 2023 James Elkington released Me Neither, a double album of solo guitar improvisations

and experiments. He ended up thinking of it as a wordless collection of library music. 'Library

music' is a trove of anonymously produced sound that can be plundered for any kind of use

and Elkington, the Chicago based British guitarist, nds a freedom in this music that seems to

come out nowhere.

He follows up Me Neither with Pastel de Nada, a new 2xLP set where the 27 tracks amount to

more of a toolkit than a library. Bright, optimistic strums like 'The Lyre Concordia', layered

meditations like 'Morny in the Earling' and 'The Caves at Aurangabad', and tracks like 'The Equal

Spacing' that tick and whir like little machines for generating joy. Elkington squares his guitars

off against textures, atmospheres and whispers of percussion.