Entering his fiftieth year of performing, Henry Kaiser has had a storied career. Although he has explored the far reaches of free jazz, free improvisation, solo guitar arrhythmia, and psychedelic fusion, however, he has always taken time to revisit to his rock roots.

The Sound of the Stars features the twin weirdo guitars of Kaiser and Norwegian axe-man Tore Elgarøy for nearly sixty minutes of ping-ponging shredding. It begins, however, with blasts of drums, steady and amplified as if to cut through the crackles of worn-out cassette in a noisy car. As the guitars set in, so too does a galloping bass. Together the bass and drums lay the rhythm, which would not be notable except for the fact that they play this role only. The rest is e-guitar heavy space rock onanism. I am not sure which guitarist plays which part, but individuality seems less the point than the confusion of endlessly traded licks. Refrains and repeated melodies, or even themes, play little role here. Instead, the focus is solos, and solos upon solos upon solos. One hears echoes of Sonny Sharrock or David Gilmore in some sections, BB King and more modern glitchy processing in others, but, in the deliberateness of the mélange, one could argue one hears nothing but Kaiser and Elgarøy.

One should take the final words of that statement literally, as well. The two guitarists are credited with drums and bass, which speaks to their role as the background and grounding. If this really is an album of guitar solos — in the hard prog rock tradition — the individual songs, of which there are twelve, need some structure. If that does not come from themes or motifs, which are largely absent, then it has to come from the rhythm. And Elgarøy and Kaiser never stray too far from that underlying basis. Time signatures rarely complicate and even the wildest shreds on this release rarely stray too far afield, even if they do, as the title suggests, explore the firmament. Each song coheres around some aesthetic value, whether predetermined or established in the moment I cannot say. I can say, however, that this album will appeal to those listeners who, however adventurous, still ooze when they hear Shut Up and Play You Guitar, some choice Eddie Hazel solo, or any of Henry Kaiser's other forays into rock improv.