Fact #128978

Albums like this don't come along too often. The last time was back in 1974 when Japanese synth-wiz Isao Tomita fashioned a surpassingly beautiful collection of Debussy tunes called Snowflakes Are Dancing. People, loads of them, have tried since and the results have been uniformly dismal until now. The astonishing thing about Orbit (aside from being Madonna's producer) is not just that he interprets baroque, classical and contemporary works with equal facility, but that he does it with seemingly timeless grace and style while simultaneously incorporating elements of 90s minimalist kitchen-sink rock, avant-garde dance, and post-Eno computerised ambience. It takes a brave man to attempt Ravel's 'Pavanne', Vivaldi's 'Winter' and Beethoven's 'Triple Concerto' on the same album, but Orbit pulls them all off with the fluid elegance of a virtuoso twice his age. Listen before you buy, though, because we're talking love or hate here.
Johnny Black, review originally appeared in Hi Fi News.