Having found a fine aesthetic space all their own on their debut album, for II Idyll Swords keep on keeping on, the threesome benefiting from fine production by Brian Paulson, bringing out both the prettier and sometimes darker edges of their worlds-of-music blend. Once again the instrumental range and ability on said instruments is quite striking; the Turkish baglama saz, the sitar guitar, and more appear along with straightforward guitars and banjos in a slightly more familiar (to American ears) vein. There's something about the performances and the whole album that suggests the range of bands on the VHF label, like Pelt or perhaps more appropriately Black Twig Pickers, but here it's a backwoods music where the woods are near the Caucasus or Himalayas rather than the Appalachians. John Fahey's serene fusions and explorations also act as a role model, but the singing of the group in ways is their secret weapon, calm and devoid of twang, exaggerated or otherwise, an acoustic psychedelic trip with a wide range of stopping-off points. The one cover on the album shows as much; titled "Kashal in Rag Pilu," it's a traditional song from Afghanistan given an elegant arrangement by the band that is at once energetic and dignified and makes it an album high point. Spatula's Chris Eubank contributes slow, beautiful cello to the lengthy "Lake Palace," making the entrancing, multi-part song even more so (it could be the soundtrack from the sunrise picture on the back cover). Some songs show experimentations with dark ambient sounds, as with the atmospheric environmental drones and samples in the midsection of "Escutcheon Ascent/Biza's Theme" or toward the end of "Ucelagon Blues." Mostly, though, the feel and setting is direct and unadorned, a combination of stringed instruments and musical styles not merely to be applauded for the vision of the players, but the skill they bring to their work. ~ Ned Raggett