Frequently shifting focus as its harmonies melt one into another, this swirling piece finds its wildly branching roots touching on many styles of music—from Delius and Debussy to bop to techno. Los Tigres de Marte is sometimes lush and enveloping, sometimes brittle and percussive, sometimes suspended and motionless, sometimes agitated and aggressive, but always engaging.

The composer writes about Los Tigres:
“Like many American composers of my generation, I was raised on a diet of bebop and serial music. In college in the 1960s, my music reflected these influences and teachings—from Miles Davis to Stockhausen. I abandoned all this in 1970/71 when I made my first pieces in my then-new style—one of clear, tonal harmonies and ‘pretty’ melodies. In Los Tigres de Marte, I tried to place my recent (still harmonically based) language inside of one that resembles that of my student days: tight clusters, glissandi, and even some bebop-driven rhythms.”

The recording features the playing of long-time Cold Blue clarinetist/collaborator Marty Walker, for whom the piece was written in 2003, and a quartet of some of Los Angeles’ top studio string players, all bathed in lively, glowing textures of electronic sounds and samples.

REVIEWS:

“With its slow, interlocking suspensions and white-note harmonies, Tigres brings to mind Sibelius, of all things—particularly the twilight pages of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies—with the exception of a contrasting section about six minutes in where the rhythmic intensity gets cranked up and the piece breaks into a manic Michael Nymanesque jitterbug…. But the jitterbug ends just a quickly as it began, ceding to a much more lyrical style that gives a prominent, concerto-like roll to the clarinet. If Lentz talked about some of his earlier cascading echo pieces as ‘spiralling forms of becoming,’ Tigres traces—with its expressive grand pauses—a more improvisational line of fragmentation…. By intriguing his listeners at the same time he wreathes them in smiles, Lentz always comes up with something listenable and worthwhile. That’s certainly true of this new release.” — Arved Ashby, Gramophone

“Sonically dense music…music of near orchestral force and scope.” —Molly Sheridan, NewMusicBox (American Music Center)

“It is a precious suite which fluctuates between melodic classical music and new instrumental music. There also are some touches of minimalism.” —Amazing Sounds (Spain)

“After pressing the ‘Play’ button, one is immediately immersed in a beautiful landscape—perhaps it’s spring, perhaps it’s the dawn – although it seems likely that the landscape is on Mars, not on Earth. The ‘Lever du jour’ from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé might have been Lentz’s model. In time, Marty Walker’s clarinet emerges from the softly swirling mass of sound. And then—surprise!—the tempo picks up, and one finds oneself in the middle of a Martian bacchanale. This doesn’t last long however, and Los Tigres de Marte wends its way to an end with the clarinet singing a rapturous solo over a warm backdrop of strings and electronics.” —Raymond Tuttle, ClassicalNet

“Daniel Lentz’s work, with its sparkle and pulse, has long evinced hallmarks of the minimalist style. But Lentz has often brought a glossy, Pop Art-Southern California palette of colors to his work. Los Tigres de Marte is in many ways a brief clarinet concerto for the tonal virtuosity of Marty Walker…. With its unashamed melodic richness unfolding within an alternation of passages both sun-streaked and shadowed, Los Tigres de Marte is an engaging and powerful work that seems to reveal new facets with each encounter.” — Kevin Macneil Brown, Dusted

“Suffused with memories that seem to include Smetana and Delius, the piece is a fabric of rich harmonies and textures, passed under the ‘distorting’ lens of contemporary musical sensibility.” —Christopher Ballantine, Int’l Record Review (UK)

“Los Tigres de Marte mutates dizzyingly through multiple keys and stylistic episodes: Debussyesque one moment, Glass-like another, with aggressively stormy moments offset by harp-flavoured interludes of delicate languor. It’s a concerto of sorts for Marty Walker with his clarinet enveloped by glissandi strings and electronic choirs, bells and assorted other percussion.” —Ron Schepper, Textura and Stylus

“Los Tigres de Marte is indeed a powerful, exhilarating and bright composition, which tends to ravish rather than lull you. Lentz himself talks of ‘tight clusters, glissandi, and even some bebop-driven rhythms.’ Quite a beautiful work.” —Eugenio Maggi, ChainD.L.K. (Italy)

“Beautifully recorded music with suitably artistic packaging…. Los Tigres de Marte is more melodic and complex, with elements that seem to draw from Philip Glass, Gershwin and Zappa…. [T]his is definitely music worth spending time with.” —Randy Raine-Reusch, MusicWorks (Canada)

“Daniel Lentz forever has my vote as the greatest ‘new music’ composer…. Los Tigres is a truly unforced and uplifting achievement! Something whose fresh, invigorating impulse could repeat over and over only to be experienced anew each listen…an unequivocally recommended miniature.” —Exposé

“The orchestral temperament of this music is soothing and congenial, with strings waxing cerebral in conjunction with atmospheric electronics. After a while, the music takes a more lively turn, exploring fanciful melodies that maintain an airy-but-insistent bearing. Piano emerges to guide the tune into its concert hall finale. The clarinet achieves a high-altitude winsome manner that is excellently elaborated by the airy strings, producing music that spills from a mountain peak to entertain all surrounding valleys.” —Sonic Curiosity

“This is a particularly enjoyable work that demonstrates special attention to the act of composition.” —altriSuoni (Italy)

“A capricious, Disney-esque fantasia, beconing to be opened endlessly….featuring puzzling but well-resolved contradictions.… Bursts of energetic keyboard exuberance evolve constantly into masses of glissandi, juxtaposing fragments of melody with brittle lateral immobility. Lentz’s music proves to be quite labyrinthine and filled with a vigorous sensuality.” —ei magazine

“Surfacing only infrequently on disc since the heyday of minimalism in the 1980s, Daniel Lentz contributed this lush, beautiful, mostly electronic tone poem to Cold Blue Music’s enterprising CD-single series in 2004. Opening with a sheen of pitch-drifting electronic sound, the 15-minute piece soon becomes an elegy for Marty Walker’s sometimes-arpeggiated clarinet and a mixture of acoustic and electronic strings, simulated chimes, and other digitally-created sounds. Except for a minute-long outburst of Lentz’s more typical motor rhythms mid-way through the piece, all is peaceful and highly romantic in mood and texture, with only a hint of unease in the harmonies. Though perhaps intended as ambient music, Lentz’s piece offers more for the attentive listener than most in this genre.” — Richard S. Ginell, All-Music Guide