Further extracts from the same sessions which produced the two-hour-long first volume, “Threads Of A Prayer” continues the vein of dark, sombre, expansive melancholy, but in a slightly more succinct manner.

For the most part, opener “The Field” has the texture of a tragic violin solo, with occasional soft single-hit interjections from timpani. “As We Rise Up” is similarly violin-led but with a pulsing and subtle bass tone, so soft that it begins to sound like distant machinery, providing a grounding influence. By contrast, the title track and the six-part entirety of “6 Pieces For The Unknown” are all solo piano- simple and slow successions of dark and light chords with a languidly improvised feel.

Sometimes simplicity itself is not the sole ingredient of beauty, and perhaps in “Threads Of A Prayer” Roden relies too much on the technique of simplicity. However this work still represents a bold expression of solitude and quietness, confident in its duration and use of space.

(And before you ask me whether I’ve cropped the artwork incorrectly, I haven’t- that’s what it’s meant to look like.)