BGS records is the not-for-profit label of the International Guitar Foundation, an educational charity. I’m afraid I’m not going to be very charitable about this release.

Just as acoustic guitars seem to prompt players to value executive skills above musical sensibility, several pieces in this collection take slender concepts and screw them into the ground for the sake of exploiting virtuosic technique.

For Skirting, Graham Fitkin says he wanted to ‘explore the material as if it was being slightly rubbed away to see what was underneath, yet I didn't really want to get to the nub’. A bit like trying to plane the veneer on cheap furniture without exposing the chipboard core, perhaps? At 13 minutes Standing Wave is, as Joby Talbot says, long for a single-movement guitar work: it seemed a lot longer to me. Both pieces would be twice as good at half the length.

Edward McGuire’s Amazonia, a homage to Villa-Lobos, is full of allusions to the Brazilian’s style but somehow evokes a kind of passion without warmth. When Howard Skempton’s Miniatures arrive they are as welcome as palate-refreshing sorbets, preparing the way for Bruce MacCombie’s engaging Variations, which make fruitful, attractive use of the spare source theme.

The programme ends with a trio by Kevin Volans, who describes it as ‘abstract rather than programmatic…the interpretation should come down to the individual listening’. OK, then: for me it evoked one of those tasks, simple in theory but requiring superhuman patience, like threading a needle or getting accurate information from one of the new directory enquiry services.

Overall I found the package rather dry, but I’ve no doubt it will appeal to aficionados of new guitar music, if only because of Tom Kerstens’s accomplished playing.