we will be wherever the fires are lit

Guitarist Dorji came to Asheville, North Carolina from Bhutan, over two decades ago, and his improvising style retains Eastern qualities, although the listener might veer even further, hearing the Japanese shamisen as a probable influence, besides a hyperventilating descendance from the intricate folk fingering of John Fahey. Nevertheless, the Dorji style resonates with his own personality, this recording harnessing a near-manic state of concentrated energy, as notes cascade off repetitive cyclic riff patterns, delicately hanging embellishments surrounding an already multifaceted drive. There’s the sound of sympathetic strings, of attached objects, in Dorji’s highly physical, percussive string relationship, although this might all be the result of extreme fingering. Taut dobro and banjo – the polar opposites to smoothness – impinge. Dorji makes a jaunty sway, driving, buzzing, creating overlapping lines, as tunes become riffs, with micro-gesture detail, throughout illustrating an unrelenting intensity and determination.