Proto-Sonny Sharrock guitar freakouts, proto-Grant Green guitar chillouts, proto-Anouar Brahem oud divagations, this record has it all, except a sense of identity or direction. Pick a lane, sir.
It reminds me of Andrés Segovia having advised Julian Bream to ditch the lute and stick to the classical guitar, as you couldn't possibly master two instruments the same way you could one, devoting your entire energy to it. While I wouldn't entirely subscribe to that line of thought (as I don't particularly subscribe to Segovia playing style either, historical importance notwithstanding), especially outside of highly specialized music worlds like classical or jazz, on a case-by-case basis it can certainly hold true sometimes.
In Bream's case, I actually find some of his lute work more satisfying than a lot of his guitar records, particularly from when Segovia's influence over guitarists everywhere was more pronounced (as in the overuse of piercing metallic tones, also found in John Williams' earlier records), so he probably made the right call in doing his own thing.
In Grdina's, though, with the alluring "Morning Moon" clearly towering over the rest of this record, if Segovia were around to tell him to stick to the oud and ditch the guitar instead, in this instance, just like in those days when political actors were able to pursue ideological agendas and still touch base with some form of common sense (or was that just a dream?), even I would have had a hard time disagreeing with the man.
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