WILLIAM ORBIT
Pieces in a Modern Style (Maverick)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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Three of the very best avant electronic artists have similar names: The Orb, Orbital, and William Orbit. Today we're talking about William Orbit. The very same gentleman who produced Madonna's ethereal Ray of Light album and reinvigorated her career. On his own he is known for the Strange Cargo albums, especially for the stunningly hypnotic Water From a Vine Leaf-easily one of the best electronic songs of the 90's, if not all time.

Pieces In A Modern Style is a departure from his earlier work. It's a classical classic, and I don't say that lightly. There is homage to Samuel Barber, Beethoven, Satie, Ravel, Gorecki, Handel and others, including the avant garde 20th century composer John Cage.

Moby travels these symphonic roads sometimes, but he can get too tricky or trendy for his own good. Other electronic artists have mined the electronic classical vein more deeply-Wendy Carlos of course, Larry Fast, Isao Tomita, and Morton Subotnick. Also there's Terry Riley, Jean-Michel Jarre, Kitaro and to some degree Rick Wakeman, all whose work certainly has roots in classical music too. It seems a natural fit for electronics and their keyboard heritage. Orbit harks back to all these earlier artists and ranks with the best of them with Pieces.

For those more interested in more danceable electronic grooves, Orbit's included a separate CD with two remixes of Barber's Adagio for Strings. These have been very successful on European radio, but I find myself ignoring them for the beauty of the main CD. I'm glad he didn't make the mistake Art of Noise did with their DeBussey album last summer. Parts were mesmerizing but they lost it when they tried to alternate dance and hip hop attitudes in with the classical. Orbit maintains the pure instrumental classical arrangements throughout and it works wonderfully for extended listening. Every cut flows.

The electronic music world has been begging for a subtle, reserved set of music like this for a long time. There are just enough well known classical themes to get you comfortable, but it's balanced with a good shot of experimentation to keep you coming back for more. This is a beautiful, timeless piece of work that compares favorably to Wendy Carlos's monumental Switched on Bach. Set it on all day play and sail away.

© 2000 - Rusty Pipes