The Compass, Log and Lead is a 2006 studio album of improvised acoustic experimental music by Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt and Stevie Wishart.

[1]In a review at AllMusic, arwulf called The Compass, Log and Lead "an absorbing album of collectively improvised rituals" by Frith and the "exceptionally brilliant" Kihlstedt and Wishart.

He lauded it for its "strikingly inspired subtlety, delicacy, and intimacy", and said it is one of the "most intriguing entries in [Frith's] entire discography".

[4] Reviewing the album in the jazz and improvised music online magazine One Final Note, Daniel Spicer said Frith, Kihlstedt and Wishart's performances here are restrained as they test the limits of their acoustic stringed instruments, but he noted that the result is a "bewitching, lo-fi combination of folk and improv".

[7] Writing in All About Jazz Glenn Astarita described the trio's "homespun ... avant-garde stylizations" as "an organic gala with a bevy of abstracts and roots-derived melodies".