A strong second album is always something to celebrate, the continuation of a joyful thing. Imagine More is especially meaningful given that, as Aodren Pecnard (of djolo.net ) writes, Lophae’s music, “tells the story of the obstinacy of Greg Sanders, who suffers from a chronic illness [ME/CFS] and refuses to keep quiet about the music he plays. [It’s a] work of resilience, in which every note becomes an act of belief.” *

This music is one of Sanders’s ways of finding and making meaning against the low-level hum of absurdity in the background; and while the album as a whole (and the composition in particular) bristles with wry wit and deep intelligence, the joy abounds.

The musical chemistry between these master improvisers is on full display once more, creating delicious continuity with the world built by the first release. The eight tracks offered up here at once take us deeper down that yearned-for rabbit-hole and yet depict fresh and unanticipated scenes along the way.

The music has layers that dish out a full range of experiences: from background vibe creation to the kind of close listening that unveils the details. Sanders, Rapley, Herbert and Brown pull together a constellation far greater than the sum of its stars, a brilliant splendour that is no easy feat for improvised, instrumental music to conjure up.