Lamplighter is the new album from Gerycz/Powers/Rolin, a trio featuring Matthew Rolin, Columbus hammered dulcimer player Jen Powers, and Cleveland percussionist Jayson Gerycz who plays drums in the indie rock band Cloud Nothings. The group weaves together roots music, free jazz, rock, and drone to create mesmerizing, largely acoustic music that captivates, dazzles, and imparts wonder. Lamplighter is lightning in a bottle – the trio is firing on all cylinders, confident in their skillset and interplay, which makes the improvisational nature of the compositions even more impressive.

Lamplighter begins with the woozy, psychedelic “Rotations,” an extended exercise in mood, meditation, and flow state, but one that adds a kick – literally – to the formula. The song begins with an almost traditional guitar passage from Rolin before Powers’ trebly drone emerges. Then come the drums, which, despite their restraint, recall kosmische, free jazz, and rock traditions.

Other songs like the tight, melodic “June” are as close to classic songwriting as the trio comes, with its guitar chord progressions, cascading dulcimer, and driving drum pattern. It’s the band’s shortest song, clocking in at under three minutes, getting in and out fast as the penultimate piece before the final barn-burner takes the stage.

There’s no clearer indication of breaking-of-the-mold than last song “Jars of Glass,” a transcendental, nearly fifteen-minute banger that moves from the delicate to atmospheric to full meltdown. It’s an exhilarating moment, one crystallized by the beauty and tension of the previous twenty-five minutes, and it brings the album’s scale and euphoria thoroughly into focus.

There is a magic to these songs – a spark and joy – that makes the collection shimmer and allure. Some of that is due to the well-greased wheels of the Gerycz/Powers/Rolin machine and some is because there is a clear ecstasy in the playing. Beyond its existence as a thing to be listened to, Lamplighter documents the special stuff wholly unique to live musical collaboration. Through these recordings, we’re able to smear some of that sorcerous powder on ourselves.