Noveller: Desert Fires

Label: Saffron Recordings

Noveller is the nom de guitar of Brooklynite Sarah Lipstate, whose last album, 2009's Red Rainbows, was a jarring, technicolor rampage through sculpted noise and crashing dynamics. For Desert Fires, her third, she's downshifted and come up with something somehow lighter and deeper, invoking the expansive excursions of everyone from Eno to New Zealand ambient-guitar master Roy Montgomery. The opening piece, "Almost Alright," layers tones and textures in an unraveling stream, simultaneously ambient and intensely present with its picked figures punctuating a dark, slightly ominous background. That's Noveller's coolest move, subtly shading a bright canvas with a counterpoint mood, as on "Same," a beguiling three minutes that seem to operate on several levels at once: serene and pensive, yet somehow suffused with nameless menace. Through it all, Lipstate maintains the rigorous hand of a composer, as well as diviner of her instrument's mysteries. Highly recommended for fans of ambient music that refuses to just sit there. (M.L. Thrope)