Andrew Mckenna Lee is not your typical guitar composer. Most guitarist/composers tend to write for their hands first, and the music second, using clever tricks on the guitar and folk and world music idioms to write catchy pieces that charm audiences. This guy is different. Yes, he's using lots of extended techniques and the guy has clearly played his fair share of shred, but he doesn't let his rock and roll influences get in the way of serious music. Lee's rock star style is what enhances the music. This guy is currently finishing his PhD in composition at Princeton and his formal training is very apparent. Lee's writing is virtuosic, individualistic and he uses all kinds of tricks to stretch the guitar to its limits including extensive use of scordatura or alternate tunings of the instrument. The 10 tracks on this recording really comprise three pieces. In the first piece, Five Refractions on a Prelude of Bach, Lee takes the BWV 999 C minor lute prelude and reconstructs, dissects and ultimately applies a charge of C4 to the simple lute prelude. The result is absolutely stunning. The second piece is a chamber piece title "the dark out of nighttime" written for Guitar, Flute, Viola and Harp. The piece has a dark, nocturnal quality to it and Lee especially showcases his orchestration chops. The final three tracks make up his "Scordatura Suite" in which each of the three movements uses a different alternative tuning for the guitar. Koyunbaba sounds like child's play after listening to this. While the music is often bombastic, over-the-top and maybe a bit much at times, Andrew McKenna Lee is exactly what the guitar world needs: a composer with as much attention to the progression of music as he has chops that are capable of killing small rodents. While the disc is saturated with pyrotechnics, there's just as much soul. One could say his soul is on fire... as cliche as that might sound.