Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny’s first foray into chamber music features dazzling playing from Jason Vieaux and the LA Guitar Quartet who showcase Metheny’s skills in creating finely wrought textures and brilliant tunes

Each performance, although demanding to be considered as a thing in itself, together combine to produce an absorbing listening experience. There is no improvisation here, but Metheny has always argued he sees music as music, rather than get bogged down in genre distinctions. Yet with these two suites of substantial music, Metheny’s imprimatur shines through and in so doing he has, perhaps ironically, created a genre he can’t avoid, Metheny music.

Jason Vieaux’s faultless delivery of “Four Paths of Light,” a through-composed piece for solo guitar in four movements, reveals how exquisitely melodic Metheny’s approach to composition is - even the arpeggiated chords resound as a solitary line. So, it’s no surprise that the title track - his six-part opus for the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet - is just as singular in its impact.