You might call Mikael Máni’s second studio album jazz; or on the other hand you might follow the Icelandic guitarist’s lead and call it ‘Jarm’ – a blend of jazz, rock and impressionism. Máni is a player in the mould of Jim Hall – great tone – and opts here for space over flurries of notes.

The melodically resonant and deceptively complex Nostalgia Machine is the follow-up to Máni’s debut,Bobby, a concept album inspired by the chess grand master Bobby Fischer. There’s a strong sense of wide-eyed dreaming about some of the compositions on the new album, the music blurring the waking and sleeping worlds. A hint of angsty menace underpins the winding melody lines of ‘Ani’; the gentle, piano-led ‘Be Still, Sinking Heart’ might be a lullaby but evades any easy resolution. The album is produced by Matt Piereson (Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Joshua Redman et al) and released on the Icelandic label Smekkleysa, aka Bad Taste.