There’s a new Boxhead Ensemble album, *La Hora Magica*, which is to say there’s a new album of gentle, half-folk, half-ambient musings. The loose-knit group is centered around Michael Krassner and has included among its members David Grubbs, Scott Tuma, and many others, and they have released a steady series of tremendous records that explore the tonality of folk and country without foregrounding elements generally emphasized in proper songs. That said, the group’s *The Unseen Hand: Music For Documentary Film*, released last year, was less ambiguous than previous releases, especially thanks to light guitar lines that, for all their simplicity, fell short of falling short. The first track hinting at *La Hora Magica*’s contents adds yet another element to the Ensemble’s kit, a spare if persistent and automatic beat, not a drum or drum machine, more like a small battery-operated device left on a loop, a children’s toy, perhaps. It underlies all of the track in question, [“Cats Cup,”](https://soundcloud.com/astral-spirits-records/cats-cup-from-la-hora-magica-by-boxhead-ensemble-as011) and what keeps it in the sphere of ambient-ness is how that trenchant beat never quite aligns with the melodious cloud of sounds that surround it, all bowed violin and pristine guitar. I haven’t heard the full album yet. I bought it as a [“batch”](http://monofonuspress.com/store/astral-spirits-batch-4) pairing with the RED Trio’s *Live in Munich* from Monofonus Press. As evidence of how below the radar Boxhead Ensemble tend to fly, neither *La Hora Magica* nor last year’s *Unseen Hand* are listed on the group’s Wikipedia or Discogs pages.
More on the record at [monofonuspress.com](http://monofonuspress.com/store/boxhead-ensemble).