In 2023 James Elkington released "Me Neither", a double album of solo guitar improvisations and experiments. He ended up thinking of it as a wordless collection of library music. "Library music" is a trove of anonymously produced sound that can be plundered for any kind of use and Elkington, the Chicago based British guitarist, finds a freedom in this music that seems to come out nowhere. "Pastel De Nada" is a new 2LP set where the 27 tracks amount to more of a toolkit than a library. It includes bright, optimistic strums like ‘The Lyre Concordia’, layered meditations like ‘Morny In The Earling’ and ‘The Caves At Aurangabad’, and tracks like ‘The Equal Spacing’ that tick and whir like little machines for generating joy. Elkington squares his guitars off against textures, atmospheres, and whispers of percussion.