Legendary American guitarist-composer Pat Metheny has announced the release of his new album, MoonDial, on BMG on July 26, 2024. MoonDial is purely a solo guitar record with no overdubs, recorded on a custom-built nylon-stringed baritone guitar made for him by renowned luthier Linda Manzer.

Metheny says MoonDial stands apart from anything he has done previously.  The guitarist developed a special tuning system that conventional nylon strings are not able to achieve "without breaking or sounding like a banjo," as Metheny says, and his discovery last fall of a new kind of string made in Argentina that was up to the task opened up the world of possibilities heard on MoonDial.

I have released records and done occasional performances in a solo setting across the years," says Metheny of the new record. "Each one of those solo recordings, and Dream Box as well, are unlike the others. The idea for me is to try to keep coming up with different angles and ways of thinking about music while hopefully keeping a fundamental aesthetic at work in all of it. In other words, to continue the research. ( On my most recent tour ) I introduced this new instrument and this new sound. At first it was just one tune. Then two. By the time the tour was over, the new nylon-string Baritone guitar could be 20 or 25 minutes of the whole concert."