Daniel Lentz – On The Leopard Altar, 1984

Such a cool record. This was Daniel Lentz’s first full-length release (though he had already been working on ambitious large-scale compositions and performance pieces for 20 years by then) and was one of the seven releases on the short-lived Icon Records. Though Lentz’s background seats him pretty squarely in the realms of academia, On The Leopard Altar avoids much of the dryness that I associate with minimalism–it’s more generous, unafraid to lean into pop sensibility and pleasure. (Fittingly, he went on to make two records with Harold Budd.) “Lascaux” is a gorgeous nine minutes of 25 tuned wine glasses resonating in and out, with nothing added but reverb, and it acts as a drone meditation piece, with glasses serving as both shruti box and chimes. “Requiem” attempts to capture the experience of hearing a lone singer in a large, empty cathedral, with big church bell tolls, rolling keyboard chimes, a vocalist bathed in Julee Cruise-esque reverb, and a few pretty incredible overtone moments. The gorgeous title track is very warm, present vocals delivered with a choir boy-esque straight tone purity, over rolling keyboards and (I think) more wine glasses. On “Is It Love” and “Wolf Is Dead…” we hear more typically minimalist long-form weaving of gamelan-inspired rhythmic pulses in the vein of Reich and friends, and vowel-based vocal pulsing in the vein of Monk and friends, but even these are structured in ways that suggest a pop sensibility.

7 thoughts on “Daniel Lentz – On The Leopard Altar, 1984”

  1. so happy that someone finally noticed; i've often wondered if i'll be lying on my deathbed regretting the hundreds of hours i spent fixing my itunes tags. thanks for listening! <3

  2. I came to this blog looking for YMO and found more obscure 80s Japanese synth records but have now stumbled upon over a dozen amazing records I would've never heard elsewhere (Vapor Drawings, Elicoide, Finis Africae to name a few…). This one in particular is just pure bliss. Thanks so much for digging these up and getting them out there!

  3. Thank YOU! For sharing all these oddball releases that literally have fallen thru the cracks of time. Great art should never be forgotten and even the lesser known artists/musicians need to be recognized.

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