Fennesz's 2001 record Endless Summer broke all expectations about how abstract music is received (which is to say "at all:"). The title, fairly brilliantly borrowed from a Beach Boys best-of album, suggested some sort of accessibility even if it wasn't of the four-part-harmony, three-verses-and-a-catchy-chorus variety. And it was no empty promise. The lushly layered, heavily processed electric guitar tones didn't have melodic themes or linear progressions to help listeners along. But while instrumental albums rarely achieve popular appeal, the first pressing of Endless Summer quickly sold out. From the perspective of such acts as Fenn O'Berg, MIMEO and Polwechsel (all of whom he's played with), Fennesz was soon a superstar.

Fennesz has neither refused nor attempted to repeat the fame Endless Summer brought him, and only now � 13 years later � does he return to Editions Mego (the label from his native Vienna which released that album) and to that lush sound. Endless Summer and now B�cs are the antithesis of the stark minimalist improvisation (aka "EAI") with which Fennesz is often otherwise associated. It's bright and dewy music, closer to the soundtracks of Angelo Badalamenti in feel than the methodical compositions of Morton Feldman or the microscopic soundworlds of AMM.

The return is a welcome one, but B�cs isn't a mere retread. Endless Summer was divided into eight tracks but still felt like one big meadow. B�cs is a set of songs with wide open spaces between them. The seven tracks (clocking at 44 minutes) are separate but related pieces with more overt guitar sounds than on the earlier album. And where Summer was the work of one man armed with a laptop and a guitar, B�cs includes guest appearances (bassist Warner Dafeldecker, drummers Tony Buck and Martin Siewert and C�dric Stevens on modular synthesizer), although the additional voices only supplement the sound, they don't dramatically alter it.

Upon its release � or at least in the wake of its success � Endless Summer was met with a bit of cynicism among the experimental music cognoscenti. It's to Fennesz's credit that he waited this long to revisit the formula � and that he finally did.