American composer Lance Hulme was primarily trained in the U.S., but has made his home and established his reputation in Germany, where he has worked as a jazz/fusion keyboardist and as founder and director of Ensemble Surprise, a group whose repertoire spans the history of Western instrumental music. The pieces on this CD, including orchestral, jazz, electronic, vocal and chamber music, reflect the diversity of his interests. The eight-minute orchestral tone poem Stealing Fire, an allusion to the Prometheus myth, is an especially strong piece, characterized by skittish rhythms and nervy aggressiveness. The same qualities are evident, with an added element of whimsy, in the outer movements of Odyssey Allusions, for chamber ensemble, an especially attractive work whose three movements are witty, inventive, and full of catchy and memorable gestures that are richly imagined and executed. Threnody for the victims of September 11, 2001, is a setting of a passage of comfort and reassurance from the Revelation of St. John, for women's voices and strings. The performance of Odyssey Allusions is very fine -- polished and committed -- but in the larger scale pieces, particularly Stealing Fire and Threnody, it sounds more like the work of talented amateurs. The sound quality is clean and clear, if a little distant.