Refuge

This deservedly well-respected guitarist/composer adds to his already impressive résumé with this, his seventh studio album. As with the trio effort, Variations (OA2 Records, 2013), it's a wonder to hear how he so effortlessly yet precisely he pulls bright lines from his fretboard to then interweave them with the other instrumentalists' sounds. But based on the expansion to a four-piece alignment on this project, George Cotsirilos has additional openings for such deft placement: the presence of Keith Saunders' piano alters the contours of both arrangements and musicianship and thus elevates the intrinsically challenging nature of the musicianship. That this OA2 album is all original material, composed specifically for this ensemble, only renders the listening experience that much more impressive, not to mention more likely to elicit repeated hearings to fully discern the record's multiple attributes.