In 2023 James Elkington released Me Neither, a double album of solo guitar improvisations and experiments. He ended up thinking of it as a wordless collection of library music. 'Library music' is a trove of anonymously produced sound that can be plundered for any kind of use and Elkington, the Chicago based British guitarist, finds a freedom in this music that seems to come out nowhere. He follows up Me Neither with Pastel De Nada, a new 2xLP set where the 27 tracks amount to more of a toolkit than a library. Bright, optimistic strums like `The Lyre Concordia', layered meditations like `Morny in the Earling' and `The Caves at Aurangabad', and tracks like `The Equal Spacing' that tick and whir like little machines for generating joy. Elkington squares his guitars off against textures, atmospheres and whispers of percussion.