As the title indicates, Collected Works: 2012-2014 brings us up to date on Benzola’s work from the past couple years. Several of the tracks are reflective solo piano pieces that would be just as much at home in a smoky lounge as a symphony stage (or your living room for that matter). These pieces are a joy, as Benzola is an accomplished and expressive ivory tickler. My hands down favorite of these is Satellite on a Pyramid, the title of which screams out Sun Ra, but is an impassioned composition that blends the free-wheeling spirit of Jazz with the thematic arc of Broadway, and adds a warm and adventurous dissonance.

We’ve also got several pieces that bring the Jazz and electronic worlds together. Asphodel features cosmic Jazz á la Sun Ra, with melodic tinkling keys that bear only the slightest hint of welcome dissonance, backed by steady drumming and light atmospherics. In Memoriam-For Ian Catchart starts off with a similar vibe, but is less playful and more ambient and introspective, though soon develops into a duet between Jazz drumming and a mischievous array of spaced out sounds. Angel of Light/Fallen Angel-For Kenneth Anger could just as easily been titled Meditation for Pinball Machine and Soundscape, with its rhythmically precise game room clatter and gradually building aura of pulsating, cavernous atmospherics. (Guest Chris Becker provides the “dark ambient music” on Angel of Light.) Jazz drumming and spaced out experimental electronics converge on Key Zero, with guest Jukka-Pekka Kervinen providing the electronics. The electronics are at times playful, hypnotic, orchestral and ominous on Portraits of the Dead-Karlheinz Stockhausen, and includes a voice narrative (of Stockhausen?) discussing the nature of sound. The spirit of its subject lives on Portraits of the Dead-Josef Zawinul, a cool grooving, rocking, and just a wee bit ethnic infused 70s styled Jazz-Fusion jam with a Psychedelic edge. The keys/drums combo on this track are exhilarating. Portraits of the Dead-Paul Motian and Steve McCall and Portraits of the Dead-Angus Maclise are both busily spirited and imaginative solo drum and percussion workouts.

Visual imagery provides the inspiration for five of the tracks. The cover Art of the album, by Russell Floersch and titled Electra, inspired the piece of the same name, a funky rocking slab of 70s styled Herbie Hancock Jazz-Fusion with a healthy dose of droning soundscape waves and freaky electronica. Two tracks are based on the photos of Lauren Matzen, both black and white images of a woodland scene that’s either in decay or just hibernating for the Winter. The Dreaming Tree is a high energy drum and percussion workout with the looming presence of electronic insects. The sounds of the forest are even more prominent via field recordings on Not There, with piano, strings and percussion music that reminds me of Sun Ra’s Music From The World Tomorrow. We also have two tracks based on the photos of Diane DiGioia, one of which looks like a sparse and grainy canvas, and the other a blue, partly cloudy sky, with an urban setting partly revealed to the left and right. The Persistence of Memory is a Jazz drum and effects workout, with a great channel separation mix as I listen under the headphones. And Peace Piece is a lulling and beautifully melodic solo piano tune.

In summary, Benzola inhabits several worlds – Jazz, Classical, Electronica, Kosmiche, Experimental – and synthesizes his influences to create absorbing, exciting, inventive and, yes, Psychedelic concoctions. WIRE should have done a cover story on this guy long ago.