The alter-ego of Scott Herren already has form of course. His previous album under this name, One Word Extinguisher, was bizarrely superseded in quality by its subsequently released Extinguished: Outtakes EP. After deviating with this most organic of electronica with the Savath & Savalas project, Herren is back. And this time he's brought a posse of rappers and kooky alt-types.

Despite the all-comers guest-spots, Surrounded By Silence maintains a narrative core. The group players are apparitional, ghostly - hard raps and folksy chiming appear as signals, communiqués from the ether, a holistic dialogue with the human race. Surrounded By Silence places the listener in the driving seat of the artist - a digitalised, sensory, astral travelogue.

Like the stills in the accompanying credits booklet, the devil is in the peripheral detail. Though Pastel Assassins is 'sung' by twins Claudia and Alejandra Deheza, the atmosphere is one of sensual distraction. Kazu of Blonde Redhead conspires on We Got Our Own Way, summoning similar Sargasso spirits of atmosphere that Pram conspire to conjure.

Where Surrounded By Silence really earns its stripes is in enlivening incongruities. Pagina Dos could be Animal Collective displaced from summer camp to Times Square, bewildered and beatifically dazzled by the city glow. Minutes Away Without You is fairground Jazz, while Herren and LA -mixer DJ Nobody unite the fear of Folk and Illbient into something grand and cinematic with La Correcion Exchange before arriving at a destination of looped Exotica.

In addition there are a festival's worth of genre-adoptions. Now You're Leaving (featuring Camu) is a seamless excursion into sublime electronic black pop. Yet so offhandedly is it cut short that it gives the impression Herren could knock out such effortless tune-age in his sleep. With the assistance of Wu-Tang Clan's GZA and Masta Killa (not their real names, ladies and gents), Just The Thought presses laser-gun madness into the service of melody, neatly counterpointed by the rhymes.

Though there are synthetic and manipulated 'real' noises aplenty, it is the backboard of silence, of space, that dictates the play. Though no doubt meticulously and painstakingly pieced together, Surrounded By Silence could be the work of a particularly intrusive tape recorder enabled with artificial intelligence. Beats are insistent but, poking just below the surface, function as markers to this periscopic journey as opposed to its propulsion.

The odd raps, from Beans to Ghostface (yep, more nom de plumes for confused surfers) are bellows from a speakers corner located somewhere in sub-space. Freshly recorded they may be but coupled with some straightforward sampling (like Karen Dalton's Are You Leaving For The Country) and miscellaneous female voices, all appear plucked from history's audio-library.

It would be too glib to say that Herren is a curator of sounds as Surrounded By Silence has too much collaborative warmth to be saddled with that academic handle. Even with the diversions into Autechre-like avant-burbling (Ty versus Detchibe), Surrounded By Silence quickly attains an inclusive patina so if it all sounds like a sprawl, fret not. Surrounded By Silence has the personal stamp of an auteur, a singular vision pervades the whole record. Though appealing in bite-size pieces, Surrounded By Silence works best at one sitting. What's more, this isn't a record that needs to work hard to find favour. Its many diversions are never overstated.

Despite a few f**ks here and there, it's tempting to see Surrounded By Silence as a work of Romanticism, with harmony and unification its unspoken themes. This record already features one self-proclaimed Genius (Wu-Tang's GZA). After Surrounded By Silence, he may have to get used to sharing that particular moniker.

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Mercury Prize 2009 nominees