William Tyler’s acclaimed Impossible Truth redefines the solo guitar instrumental album.

William Tyler writes music as if he’s scoring a soundtrack to a film. The Nashville musician can even describe some of the aesthetics of the movie that he envisions his sophomore record Impossible Truth accompanying.

“It would definitely be a Western because the themes I was trying to connect emerged from traveling out West and reading about the West,” Tyler says with a southern drawl. “There would be a Kubrick-Herzog-Malick visual amalgam – somewhere between an end of the world and road movie, or maybe two or three people wandering through ghost towns. A two-lane blacktop after-the-end-of-the-world kind of vibe.”

Tyler, who performs Wednesday at the Pierce Ranch Tasting Room, hopes to score actual films one day, or at least have his work used in films. But in the meantime, he’s basking in the glory of one of the best-reviewed albums of 2013 – his 2010 debut Behold the Spirit also received its share of praise – with glowing words coming from Mojo, Pitchfork and Spin, just to name a few.

“It’s gratifying, humbling and honestly kind of scary because I’m always thinking maybe two years down the line of getting another record out and just how the hell I’m going to do that – how am I going to come up with a different theme, new songs and a different approach?” he asks. “I’m not very prolific, partly out of laziness and partly out of sense of purpose.”

Impossible Truth is a more than 50-minute, all-instrumental, lavish and mostly 12-string soundscape with striking visual immediacy that would’ve been too intense if lyrics were involved. Taking cues from heroes John Fahey and Robbie Basho, Tyler’s able to convey stories through complex melodies, an onslaught of time signature changes, Leo Kottke fingerpicking and arrangements that leap from the speakers.

“I wanted to do a record that pushed the boundaries of what the concept of a solo guitar record was,” he says. “I didn’t want it to be a band record and I didn’t want it to be a solo-acoustic record.”

Using sustained notes and the echoes of a slide guitar in the distance, Tyler creates a vast and open space on the opener “Country of Illusion.” Think Ry Cooder’s Paris, Texas soundtrack.

The 10-minute album bookend, “The World Set Free,” builds slowly upon a pair of sparse melodies plucked out on 12-string with hypnotic resonance. The eventual peak announces itself through an overload of orchestral layers both harmonious and dissonant.

“There are no short-term rewards for doing this kind of music,” Tyler says. “You just have to be grateful for every opportunity you have to even go out on the road and do it for people and hopefully come up with a little money. That’s all you can really ask for.”

Tyler’s dad, who’s also a musician, once advised him to ignore critics. Tyler’s response: “Critics are the only ones who like the kind of music I make. If they don’t like it, no one’s going to.”

WILLIAM TYLER performs at 8pm Wednesday, July 31, at Pierce Ranch Tasting Room, 499 Wave St., Monterey. $5. 372-8900.

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