I have a lot of music available to me to listen to, and I am fairly certain I am not unique in focusing on recent finds and monumental foundation stones. This is expedient perhaps but deprives me of the joys of music in between these gravity wells. So I am delighted to have rediscovered Matt Stevens’ 2014 album Lucid.

I discovered Matt as a solo steel-string guitar and loop pedal player. He put on some stunning shows and recorded some lovely music in that form that is well worth your time too. He is now perhaps best known as part of The Fierce And The Dead (also worth a listen).

This album stands a little off to the side of these other projects, but it deserves more of my attention and perhaps yours too.

I have a sense that Matt really wanted to say what this album presents. It feels like a personal project and I find that drawing me in. He is ably supported in realising this by musicians like Charlie Cawood and Stuart Marshall. There is also the midwifery of Kevin Feazey (also of The Fierce And The Dead) as producer to thank for this album.

To try to describe the album, prog is probably the large blanket that covers this. The Ascent is redolent of King Crimson’s Red era and even features Pat Mastelotto on drums. However, there are many threads to this.

There are many things I love about this album, it manages to present varied work from track to track while holding a cohesive identity, it is an intelligent work without being forbidding and it feels honest. To the last point, there are some edges and grit in here. Risks were taken and we can hear some of that in the finished album. It is not all smooth but the lumpy bits give a glimpse of the skill and effort that went into the making of this album.