Star rating: ****

Nick Pynn's a crafty cove. The initial response to his Fringe 07 show has to be "breathtaking" - and that's only the stairs up to Inlingua Edinburgh's Hanover Street premises. Once inside the office converted into one of the Fringe's most intimate theatres, however, the results were genuinely impressive. Playing an array of acoustic instruments - fiddle, guitar, cittern, banjo, dulcimer and a small wine glass "choir" - Pynn conjured up a world of impressionistic pieces.

From the cool morning air of After Breakfast 10am Vienna to the bluegrass'n' crickets heat of a Virginia Saturday-night hoedown, Pynn marshalled fingers, accompanying bass pedals and even a proto theremin (called, wait for it, Una) with sure mastery.

Although these were composed pieces, all the music and effects were created in the moment. Even the stage lighting, which Pynn controlled from his cross between a band leader's chair and a cockpit, was spontaneous.

Only the ghostly voices of Shetlander Astrid Williamson and Arthur "I am the god of hellfire" Brown were pre-recorded during an hour in which Pynn acted the charming, entertaining host as well as presenting music of immense imagination and skill.