There are times when the sound of life just isn’t enough. William Orbit takes the sound and mimics the soul that many a great composer placed out before them. I first thought it was pop imitating art, but I found myself almost in tears at the perceptive sound Orbit has wrought.
Classical music and composition are one hell of a tough trek, so I let what I know about it all go out the window and decided to close my eyes and just enjoy this for what it is. Ecstasy.
Updating classical pieces doesn’t seem to be a profitable move, but nothing about Pieces In A Modern Style begs for chart-topping. Orbit left each song with its dignity. I don’t have to tell you that most of today’s music is intolerable, and it is crammed down our throats over and over again each and every day. This album takes your mind and lets it wander, expands the thoughts between the halves and opens the world to your eyes. I often write stories while listening to classical music and I think I’ve found my latest love, my favorite being the number Orbit has done with electronic pioneer John Cage’s “In A Landscape”.
Orbit brings Samuel Barber, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Handel to the masses. Though some of this music was here for the taking long before America was even colonized, we’ve chosen to set them aside over and over again in favor of trivial modern pieces. Mass consumption of pop and rock has all but stripped us of our recognition of the first sonic geniuses. There were days when piano stole many a soul; it has taken a visionary to bring it back to us. Even with the loops and sprawls of synthesizers, Pieces In A Modern Style holds its ground. If this is what we have to look forward to for the next thousand years, I’m ready and grateful.
+ charlie craine
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