For those unaware, Dominic Miller has been called “a great, serene storyteller” by Peter Ruedi in the Swiss weekly Weltwoche, and Vagabond, the guitarist’s third recording for ECM, might prove his most poetic tale to date, as he creates striking melancholy textures fronting a quartet with Ziv Ravitz on drums, long-time associate Nicolas Fiszman on bass and pianist Jacob Karlzon.

The foursome – each musician a skilled leader in his own right – a has a knack for balancing deep grooves with subtle interplay, weaving pastel shades into delicate harmonic changes as they chart a ruminative path through eight new Miller-originals.“It’s never been my intention to make a guitar album. Thanks to the amazing singers I’ve worked with over the years I see myself more as an instrumental songwriter. And as they do, I see it my mission to surround myself with the best musicians who understand the narratives in the ‘songs’. I’m happy to have assembled the right lineup here with Vagabond.”

1. All Change
2. Cruel But Fair
3. Open Heart
4. Vaugines
5. Clandestin
6. Altea
7. Mi Viejo
8. Lone Waltz

This elegantly-hued new recording, from the man known as Sting’s right and left hand on the guitar for almost 30 years (including co-writing Shape of My Heart, La Belle Dame Sans Regrets and other worldwide hits), opens on the veritably shimmering All Change and the languishing beauty within Cruel But Fair and then brings us the low slung, quietly fluttering Open Heart and the fluidly serene Vaugines.

Recorded in the South of France and produced by Manfred Eicher, the album continues with the softly jaunty Clandestin and that is in turn followed by the glistening embrace of Altea, the album rounding out on the crystalline Mi Viejo, closing on the impassioned Lone Waltz.

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