ArtsFest

If the notes on ArtsFest are to be believed, the Lemon Quartet rendered their second album “at home in Akron/ Tuesdays, 9 pm/ Summer 2019 — Spring 2022/Until the US government/proves otherwise.” Which is to suggest that their sound appears to be casual and intimate, while also being a little slippery and sly (the cover art echoes that, its pastoral landscape disrupted by a telephone pole and abandoned cube truck). The quartet prefers hushed expression for the most part, their version of modern classical including ambient and jazz. Careful piano lines wind through electronic fog, opening up onto elegant vistas and then becoming encased in mist again. “Hyper for Love” is steadied by a rhythmic tick as saxophone and electric piano blooms around it. It’s a gorgeous update on the ECM template, contemplative and evolving, whether or not it was made in someone’s living room in Ohio on a Tuesday night.