Time Indefinite

Spectral and immersive, William Tylers fifth solo album is a significant departure from the pastoral full-band music of his previous outing, Goes West. In retrospect, its easy to view that record as a creative zenith of the modern instrumental guitar movement he helped pioneer. In the six years since its release, Tyler has hardly been idle. There was his intimate, folksy score to the 2020 film First Cow, a 2021 album of sparse guitar duets with Marisa Anderson (Lost Futures), and in 2023 an aggressive live album highlighting his band the Impossible Truth (Secret Stratosphere). Although guitar remains its central instrument, Time Indefinite is far less overt than its predecessors, piercing the veil of ambient and noise music with discordant structures and lengthy tonal meditations. The albums opening third consists of a remarkable three-song suite that Tyler released several months ahead of the record, indicating his new direction. It begins with the disorienting, eight-minute "Cabin Six," then segues into a pair of more tranquil tracks, the second of which, "Star of Hope," may be the most beautiful piece of music he has ever released. The tracks that follow move in multiple directions, bending and distorting, drifting between waves of anxiety, despair, wonder, and hope. There are tape loops, ambiguous samples, and field recordings, all textured and treated into unidentifiable smears of noise and harmony. And threading between them are the delicate guitar explorations Tyler is known for. "Anima Hotel" is a wobbling push-and-pull of acoustic picking and dense electric washes that plays like a balm ahead of the more liminal but still stunning "Electric Lake." The set reaches its conclusion with "Held," a slow phoenix ascending out of the static to wend its way across the sky. Many of the songs began on an old tape recorder Tyler inherited from his late grandfather, and its trembling, uneven tone helps imbue the album with an elastic time-sense, like the gradient bluing of distant mountain ranges. Though less immediate and accessible than his earlier work, Time Indefinite is another career highlight that pushes Tyler boldly into the future. ~ Timothy Monger