The Best of Alan Lorber 21st Century Orchestra
Alan Lorber 21st Century Orchestra

Computer-generated new-age orchestral jazz synthesizer music. CD is a compilation piece of Alan Lorber’s work of the past decade with his 21st Century Orchestra. Discordant, chaotic, and at times harsh, the work is nevertheless a fascinating look at harmony and disharmony. Worth a listen if you have patience and an ear for dissonant music. Mostly string work, but heavy piano use, and various synthesizer effects including bells and a sitar. Very technically complex jazz work with at times up to five simultaneous improvised instruments. Overall well put-together, with a unique sound that gives voice to a startling intricacy.

1. Constant high-pitched bells throughout song. Meandering, chaotic, high tempo backdrop to a song well suited to a frantic Alaskan dog chase.
2. Electronic sitar makes an appearance, on top of strings. Makes for very spacey adventure through the cosmos. Mostly calming, undercurrent of discordance.
3. Haphazard jazz piano signals disaster in this wandering, cascading slide down a hillside. Rocky, bumpy feel for a piece with the darker outlook of a crazed child.
4. Soaring, airy strings, but it’s not all easy sailing. A few rough patches of frantic searching punctuate this calming plateau. Supposedly a love song to his wife.
5. A song of bells, which communicate with each other in nonsense conversation. Battle drums enter the scene as the tempo slows, and the listener is left with a solitary hollow bell at the end.
6. Artificial trumpet is met with bassoon, and the intertwine in a sort of dance. At 1:37, dramatic downfall, as jazz piano melds again with bassoon, a tango arrangement gone wrong. A beautiful dance with a fatal flaw. Melodic flow turns to rapid-fire staccato.
7. From a 9/11 remembrance CD, a sobering look at the tragedy of 9/11/2001. A reflection that captures the devastation, horror, and uncertainty of tragedy with horns and strings.
8. Church bells turn to war bells as sinister high-pitched strings descend on the listener. Meant to mimic alien invasion. War drums combine with an orchestra of high trills in a somewhat frightening piece.
*9. Low strings, including cello, along with low piano, signal man’s descent into melancholic despair, the world echoing around him as he lies dazed. Depressing piece but worth a listen.
10. More sinister strings mark danger, or a lingering fear. Chaotic at 1:45, becomes increasingly more so, as strings rise in intensity and hope seemingly becomes futile. Ends with foghorn.
11. Once more begins discordantly, but we see echoes of (4) emerge, as a sort of calm is recovered. Piano chords alternate between sonorous and jarring. Song ends on uncertain note, said to reflect man’s uncertainty with a higher power.