Jason Lytle has gone far and wide in his musical career. He rose to initial fame as the frontman and founding member of cult indie favourites Grandaddy and his solo career at times recalls that group. But he’s continued to evolve courtesy of a documentary soundtrack, an improvisational Christmas piano album, and now a record composed entirely on a Juno synth and a nylon-string acoustic guitar. Hence, the title Arthur King Presents Jason Lytle: NYLONANDJUNO.

One thing is certain after hearing this album: it should be listened to with your best pair of headphones on. Lytle’s otherworldly strums ‘n’ synths will rattle through your temporal lobes and without singing a single word, he will have you questioning existence itself. There is no apparent limit to what Lytle can do with such basic tools: on ‘Geese Over Sunlight Ace’, you can actually hear the geese, layered over a spooky melody.

The true highlight, though, is ‘Dry Gulched On Rodeo Drive’, which will fit whatever mood you want it to. The synth-heavy song is slow and harsh, but somehow still uplifting. With a simple one-two quarter-note melody, one might think the song would be monotonous. But the layers of synths make for an exciting, exploratory adventure.

Here and throughout the album, Lytle gives “getting lost in the music” a whole new meaning: tangled in the web he weaves, the listener has no choice but to go on this odyssey with him. The album forces us to explore each sound, each note, each rhythm, and question our comparatively predictable reality. All that from just a Juno synth and some nylon strings tied to an acoustic guitar? That’s some achievement.

8/10. Out now.