As interested as retaining the conventional structure of a song as experimenting with soundscapes, the Dutch avant-garde musician Stephen Emmer has recorded an album combining music and spoken word. Producer Tony Visconti, who mixed the album in Phillip Glass’ Looking Glass Studios, labels Emmer as “one of those musicians/composers who knows the musical rules best and therefore also how to break them.” Some kind of musical version of gamekeeper turned poacher then.

And so we have Lou Reed, on ‘Passengers’, reading from Paul Theroux’s Great Railway Bazaar accompanied by former Bettie Serveert drummer Berend Dubbe and keyboardist Sonja van Hamel. Elsewhere, there are from-beyond-the-grave contributions from the likes of Richard Burton, Jorge Luis Borges, and Allen Ginsberg. As well as collaborations with the alive and kicking, among them Blonde Redhead singer Kazu Makino on opener ‘Listen, the Snow is Falling (Part 1), legendary pianist Mike Garson (David Bowie, Smashing Pumpkins), and classical singer Maja Roodveldt.

The result is an intriguing one. Like Low crossed with The Waste Land, this is music which will soundtrack your dreams. Indeed, Emmer targets your subconscious mind with highly-effective subliminal suggestions more commonly associated with anti-smoking programmes.

(4½/5)