shows the influence of the French Spectralists and, to some degree, the New Complexity movement (unusual instrumental combinations, extended playing techniques etc.). It is often soft, fluctuates between polyphonic intricacy and fragile monody and sometimes contains extended silences. Lentz's scores of recent years (Mysterium) are written in an unusual rhythmic system, where each bar contains four beats, but the beats can be of different lengths. While it is not clear why Lentz has adopted this idiosyncratic system, the textures and colours (occasionally with delicate layers of computer-generated sounds) superimposed over the top of these rigid "grids" often give it a shimmering or 'twinkling' quality. Another feature particularly of his orchestral works is a sense of harmony incorporating both microtonality and, now and then, an austere sense of 'twisted' tonality, with the occasional harmonic progression fleetingly reminiscent of Schumann or Bruckner. However, these chorale-like fragments are always brief and buried in the texture of the music, giving the impression of something "long forgotten". Lentz has said that in recent years he has been increasingly interested in, and influenced by, the practices of musical improvisation, music technology, sound art and digital art. Ingwe is a 60-minute work for solo electric guitar, possibly the longest solo composition ever written for the instrument. It contrasts sharply, in many ways, with Lentz's prior music and takes the electric guitar into dimensions previously unexplored in a 'classical' context. Ingwe also contains, for the first time in Lentz's output, a short section that relinquishes strict control over the musical material and gives some improvisational freedom to the performer. Both Jerusalem (after Blake) and String Quartet(s) testify to Lentz's love of William Blake's visionary epic Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion. Because of its vast cyclical structure, Lentz's work has been described by British musicologist Chris Dench as "almost proustian" in nature. In the final analysis Lentz's music, born from "total silence and radical isolation – at the very real risk of hearing nothing at all" (composer's website), seems to be torn between feelings of awe and an over-riding struggle with spiritual doubt and existential loneliness. Principal works Caeli enarrant... (1989 to date) Recordings •"Caeli enarrant..." III, "Caeli enarrant..." IV, Birrung & Nguurraa Ensemble 24 / Matthew Coorey •Ingwe Zane Banks •Ngangkar & Guyuhmgan Sydney Symphony Orchestra / Edo de Waart, ABC Classics •Ngangkar, Guyuhmgan & Monh Tabea Zimmermann / Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg / Emilio Pomarico