Since the release of his previous Songlines record Stories to Tell in early 2007, Sean Noonan has been busy stirring up the ingredients of his unique “wandering folk music” project, and here’s the new brew. Grandiose, intoxicating, and sui generis, Boxing Dreams is a wildly ambitious and idiosyncratic concept album that blends passionate vocals and time-honored lyrics from Ireland, Mali and Senegal, raw power-jamming jazz/rock guitars, shape-shifting improv viola, dense soundscapes, funked or punked up drum and bass grooves and complex, dancing polyrhythms. The musical stories Noonan tells are as diverse as ever, but the overriding metaphor of the record’s title suggests how he wrestled its elements and his own restless subconscious into a personal artistic vision.

Sean Noonan, electro-acoustic drum set, percussion, compositions Marc Ribot, electric guitar Aram Bajakian, electric guitar, Max MSP Mat Maneri, viola Jamaaladeen Tacuma, electric bass Susan McKeown, vocals Abdoulaye Diabate, vocals, conga Thierno Camara, electric bass, vocals Thiokho Diagne, percussion