TONY WAKEFORD'S 'solo' album, Cupid & Death (1996 TURSA 011 CD), is devoted to the theme of vanitas, the juxtapositioning of beauty with the fleetingness of life. While the CD contains pieces in the classic Wakeford style, it also reflects his growing interest in ambient music, or perhaps that should be musique ambiante as three of the pieces have French titles. The opening/title track, 'Cupid & Death I', is a setting to Tony's own music of the words of a baroque masque, and I found this the most impressive. It begins with a single bell-like note, a motif repeated on other tracks. Tony's initially unaccompanied singing is joined by a cello and then echoed by a deep-throated alter ego provided by Karl Blake. The varied combinations of these two male voices are unusual but effective. The track then becomes more upbeat with urgent strings and other parts weaving their threads into the web of sound. The next four tracks are instrumentals. 'Le Lac Noir' is very reflective and relaxing. 'Jardin du Luxembourg' (which begins with a sample from Discrete charm of the bourgeoisie) features Eric Roger on lazy 'jazz trumpet' and Tony on piano, with string accompaniment. 'La Nuit Est Arrivée' has a very busy, almost Latin-American, percussive accompaniment and more trumpet together with 'underwater noises' and various film noir soundclips. These middle two instrumentals have a John Barryish feel, not to mention a lush French decadence. 'The Day of the Angel' opens with Tony on kaustisen, which is apparently some kind of Scandinavian plucked dulcimer or psaltry, and contains samples from the late great Terry Thomas and from Belle de Jour. 'A Rose in Hell' with acoustic guitar and dramatic use of string interludes will be more familiar to Wakeford/Sol fans, while 'Heaven & Hell' is quite slow with piano music composed by That Summer. The final track, 'Cupid & Death II', begins with Lorna Martin singing a whispered introduction. The employment of flute, then strings, demonstrates the Wakeford mastery of rising tension. In this track the central theme is addressed in Tony's own words as a contest between Cupid and Death, an image represented in the excellent cover artwork by Andrew King. More good artwork - by Tor Lundvall - appears inside. For me, the opening and closing tracks are best, but fans of ambient experimentation will no doubt find much else to attract them. Unlike some other artists, Tony Wakeford is not stagnating but finding new directions.