Throughout his 35-year career, finger-picking-style guitar master John Fahey has explored the possibilities of dissonance intertwined with the undulating rhythms of the blues. City of Refuge is his return after spending most of this decade in poor health and dire financial straits. Now, like a sleeper awakening, Fahey has ambled back into the room, still a bit unsteady from slumber.

The grogginess sometimes shows The two-part title track, placed smack dab in the middle of the album, is appropriately named, considering the chaos on the outskirts of the LP: The opening "Fanfare" is five minutes that morph from sound collage into strummed, semidistorted flourish. At the other end of the album is "On the Death and Disembowelment of the New Age," a 20-minute-long, out-of-control opus; it sounds as if Fahey left the studio as static engorged the tape, returning only to switch on a train sound effect.

The good news is that portions of the title track, along with "Chelsey Silver, Please Come Home," are strong, pure statements, complete with the familiar Fahey sounds of dry, close-miked strings acting as metallic, otherworldly messengers. Furthermore, the future looks bright – 1997 is shaping up to be the launching pad for several projects that find Fahey in the role of old master to various younger dabblers with noise such as Thurston Moore and Cul de Sac. Given Fahey's penchant for poking around in the dark corners of every new room he enters, the results of these collaborations could be startling.

For more information, write to Tim/Kerr Records, PO Box 42423, Portland, OR 97242. (RS 752)

DAVID GREENBERGER