PETE Molinari’s guests on Theosophy are The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Little Barrie’s Barrie Cadogan, both names more fashionable than his, but nevertheless an indication of his place as a musician’s musician.

The album-cover pose harks back to Bob Dylan’s sleeves, or maybe the work of Jonathan Richman, and if this all suggests Molinari is derivative, then not even he would quibble.

What the Maltese/Italian/Egyptian guitar player from Kent does is dust off singer-songwriter folk, blues and rock’s back pages and bring those characteristics to life anew with the aid of producer Liam Watson and re-mixer Andrew Weatherall.

As the title indicates, the subject matter of Molinari’s fourth album is inspired by the Theosophical Society, the 1875 organisation formed to promote understanding of “the Esorteruic Teachings”. Science, mysticism, religion, the arts and such like.

In truth, it really isn’t that heavy, but its has a sense of a journey, an exploration, a man abandoning himself to self-discovery on What I Am I Am, So Long Gone and Winds Of Change. He ain’t Dylan, he ain’t Woody Guthrie, but Molinari is still worth the ride.