Bruce Cockburn's last disc of all-new material was 2003's You've Never Seen Everything. He could have titled this one You've Never Heard Everything.

After three dozen years and nearly as many albums of all stripes -- electric albums and acoustic ones, folk albums and pop ones, live albums and studio ones, political albums and personal ones -- you'd think Cockburn had done it all.

But no. With the elegant Life Short Call Now, his 29th release, the 61-year-old singer-guitarist shows off a few new moves -- or at least orchestral manoeuvres. For much of this hour-long set, Cockburn and his band are supported by a 23-piece symphony that sweetens his gently swaying folk fingerpicking with a rainbow of lush shades and rich hues.

Highlights include Beautiful Creatures, where the sophisticated strings swell and swirl around Cockburn's aching falsetto; the smoulderingly beautiful dirge Mystery; the sombre travelogue This is Baghdad; and the experimental closer Nude Descending a Staircase, which juxtaposes noisy soundscapes with a ghostly lounge-lizard samba.

For those who prefer their Cockburn a bit more lively, there's Slow Down Fast, a bouncy political rocker a la Subterranean Homesick Blues or It's the End of the World as We Know It.

Listening to these inspired and stylish collaborations, we can only hope that this is just the beginning of a whole new world for Cockburn. Now we've heard everything.

Track Listing:

1. Life Short Call Now
2. See You Tomorrow
3. Mystery
4. Beautiful Creatures
5. Peace March
6. Slow Down Fast
7. Tell the Universe
8. This is Baghdad
9. Jerusalem Poker
10. Different When It Comes To You
11. To Fit in My Heart
12. A Nude Descending a Staircase