Harold Budd - search and destroy

after Mysterious Skin I went back to Pavillion. Side two is impossibly lovely. When I bought it the first time, coming from the electro-acoustic ambient albums for EG, I was thrown by this one, but these days it sounds like some of his best.

After that ('good but not essential'): Serpent in Quicksilver and Abandoned Cities, By the Dawn's Early Light. The only two that I found lackluster are Luxa and Glyph (w/Zazou).

The collaboration with Andy Partridge is likely out of print (Through the Hill). It was nice moments but always reminds me that any Budd album with poetry reading soon becomes less worthy.

Never got into the Alice Coltrane-influenced Pavilions of Dreams.

Moon and Melodies and Abandoned Cities/Serpent in Quicksilver (due for re-issue next month) are my faves.

"Children on the Hill" is maybe the peak.

Hey, he has two new albums with Robin Guthrie coming out. I thought he had retired?

I have really got to catch up with the stuff Guthrie's been doing - Budd, Violet Indiana, the new Schnauss album etc.

guthrie just remixed a couple of tracks for the new ulrich schnauss EP, i don't think he had anything to do with producing the album.

darla certainly seems to have put him to work remixing their artists lately. he did one for the new alsace lorraine that's nice.

oops, this is actually a harold budd thread.

Oh remixes, ok. I thought he'd done some production.

I've heard one of the collaborations with Robin Gunthrie, After the Night Falls. It's nice if a little new-agey in stretches.

ditto for the companion LP...still, pretty lovely in places...

saw the new Budd / Guthrie albums in the store this weekend, but paused

anyone who's heard them, do they actually sound like collaborations? Mysterious Skin sounded like alternating solo tracks from each of them, and I liked it, some good moments, but in the end I'm not sure it could compete with Moon and the Melodies, so I'm almost hoping the new ones were an attempt to actually work together...

I'm not familiar with the ones you cite, but of the new stuff, it's clearly the trademark Cocteau glimmering guitar set against barely-there piano twinklings...

Also there is "Perhaps", a live solo piano album (download only) on David Sylvain's SamadhiSound label. Looks like it came out in February of this year.

No love for Music for Three Pianos, with Budd, Daniel Lentz and Ruben Garcia? Some really nice stuff on there.

Must get my hands on the Budd/Guthrie stuff dammit. I love "Moon and the Melodies".

No love for Music for Three Pianos, with Budd, Daniel Lentz and Ruben Garcia?

Oh, I give much love for Three Pianos.

anyone else think La Bella Vista is his best album?

La Bella Vista and Music for 3 pianos

Coincidentally I started my rainy day off listening to The Pavilion of Dreams, but now this thread has put me into a day-long Buddfest.

I mostly agree with the consensus favorites listed above, plus The Room. I think Luxa is a little better than some do--it's kind of a mix of all styles he's tried over the years, which makes for an uneven flow though. Avalon Sutra has a bit of that problem but is better overall.

Much as I love both Budd and Cocteau Twins, that Robin Guthrie watery mid-range production sounds better on guitars than it does piano to my ears, so Lovely Thunder and some of The Moon and the Melodies get dropped a notch. The two new Budd-Guthrie collabs sound better to me if somewhat familiar (which doesn't bother me at all).

The live album Agua is excellent and (provided there was no studio tweaking later) shows that he really could recreate those sounds on stage.

I am quite enjoying The White Arcades of late. Of the records I know, it seems his most synthed out. Which despite his lovely piano playing is not an altogether bad thing.

Can we revive this? I've been listening to a ton of The Pearl of late and trying to suck up everything I can about how Eno and Lanois did it.

i've only heard The Pearl and Pavillion of Dreams, the latter of which has quickly become one of my favorite ambient albums ever. incredible sleepytimes. I've got a nice copy of The Pearl, I should revisit it. Can't flip a record when it's sleepytime, though.

if you are into the Serpent in Quicksilver / Abandoned Cities era, this is great: http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=5869

the one he put out last year, In The Mist, has a lot of wide-ranging moods on it, making it hard for me to throw it on and leave it on, but the good pieces on it are great, such a relief he was lying when he said he was retiring

La Bella Vista is all time

He's been on a tear lately! Song for Lost Blossoms, Candylion, and Little Windows are all completely great.

More live stuff: Harold Budd @ Redcat, Los Angeles, 9/18/2004. (Streaming Quicktime only, I'm afraid.)

Almost 2 hour's worth--1st hour is music composed by Budd but performed by Clive Wright, Alex Cline, and a string quartet; 2nd hour is Budd himself with guest Jon Gibson.

if you are into the Serpent in Quicksilver / Abandoned Cities era, this is great: http://rootstrata.com/rootblog/?p=5869

Just pulled this down. Live Budd is an interesting proposition.

Looking for the original "Children on the Hill" online, but can't find it.

Are either of these it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzwFtBVD9hQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGLMI41xDhI

First one is the one from this chockfull 1983 Crépuscule compilation -- http://www.discogs.com/Various-From-Brussels-With-Love-1983-Edition/release/2005886 -- almost everything on it is alternate or unreleased versions

Second one is the 1981 version from 'The Serpent (In Quicksilver)'

Gah, so neither. I can't find either of these records anywhere online right now. Boo.

correcting myself: compilation originally came out in 1980

http://www.discogs.com/Various-From-Brussels-With-Love/master/32946

slightly shorter CD version came out recently - http://www.amazon.com/From-Brussels-With-Various-Artists/dp/B000K97MUC

Sorry, "either of these records" == Serpent/Abandoned Cities

Ergo, the original is available nowhere.

Wait, found it here: http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=Harold+Budd+Children+On+The+Hill

Still not available to purchase, however.

It's not hard to snag a used CD copy on Amazon for $5-15.

Still Budding. I like the viola on By the Dawn's Early Light.

How does everyone rate the collabs with Clive Wright? I know nothing of Wright but my local shop has three albums (all on Darla, of all labels).

budd don't

I listen to the Clive Wright collaborations far more than the Robin Guthrie ones, although I like them both.

So, I broke down and bought Little Windows, and I love it. Parts of it remind me of Popol Vuh, others remind me of Evening Star. I really love what Wright is doing on guitar and I wonder if the other Budd / Wright collaborations feature him so prominently? If so, I'm buying 'em all. Loving this dude right now.

i finally found a copy of Pavilion of Dreams this afternoon. it's a fantastic record to listen to flip over and over again.

Never got into the Alice Coltrane-influenced Pavilions of Dreams.

- duke dubuque, 7 years ago

does anyone know if there's more behind this or if this is just a duke dubuque personal opinion? i know that one of the songs uses a pharoah sanders arrangement as a starting point, and another uses a john coltrane adaptation.

i mean, i get that pavilion of dreams sounds like it's influenced by alice, i was just wondering if budd ever acknowledged it publicly

samples here sound lovely
http://rootstrata.com/release/RS96
Recorded live December 8, 2006 at a memorial event for James Tenney at California Institute of the Arts, Perhaps is Harold Budd sublimely distilled. Striking in its restraint & simplicity yet profoundly resonant in its depth & message, it is both eulogy to a departed friend and defining statement from an artist at the apotheosis of his career.

Originally available only digitally (and only from SamadhiSound's website), Perhaps sees its first ever and much deserved physical release in double LP and CD formats, mastered and cut at D&M in Berlin.

https://soundcloud.com/rootstrata/templar/s-yskB1

oh that's a good one. happy it's getting an edition. Wanders a little more than La Bella Vista, where every second counts, but it's nice to wander too -- that was a good year

dragged Bandits of Stature out last week, his CD of new string quartets from last year -- growing on me

re: ZS's q about alice coltrane -- have never read budd explicitly mention her, but i imagine he is familiar. marion brown from pavilions of dreams played w/ john coltrane, fwiw.

He's got a 2CD career retrospecitve ("Wind In Lonely Fences") and a 7 disc (or is it vinyl only?) box "Buddbox" covering, I think, his last 30 years.

The Eno-related record label All Saints (run, I think, by Eno's brother-in-law) is doing a big reissue campaign, and Buddbox is just the 7 Budd CDs that Opal/Gyroscope/All Saints originally released between 1988 and 1996: The Serpent (In Quicksilver), Abandoned Cities, The White Arcades, By the Dawn's Early Light, Music for 3 Pianos (w/Daniel Lentz & Ruben Garcia), Through the Hill (w/Andy Partridge) and Luxa. Doesn't look like there's anything new in it.

Serpent, Abandoned Cities and Through the Hill are coming out on vinyl too.

No track list on Wind in Lonely Fences yet.

All Saints has already rereleased a couple of Laraaji CDs plus a 2-CD retrospective Celestial Music, at least half of which looks to be previously cassette-only tracks.

got promos of both today, not sure if tracklists match

Thanks for the clarification, Lamp. I don't own anything but have heard enough to be interested in the 2CD comp. Tracklisting for the retrospective:

Disc: 1
1. The Oak Of The Golden Dreams (1970)
2. Bismillahi'Rrahman'Rrahim (1978) with Marion Brown & Gavin Bryars
3. Wind In Lonely Fences (1980) with Brian Eno
4. Wanderer (1981)
5. Dark Star (1984)
6. The Pearl (1984) with Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois

Disc: 2
1. Ooze Out And Away, Onehow (1986) with Cocteau Twins
2. Ice Floes In Eden (1986)
3. Algebra Of Darkness (1988)
4. A Child In A Sylvan Field (1991)
5. The Messenger (1992) with Ruben Garcia & Daniel Lentz
6. Hand 20 (1994) with Andy Partridge
7. She's By The Window (1994) with Zeitgeist
8. Nove Alberi (1996)
9. Adult (2003) with John Foxx
10. Arabesque 2 (2004)
11. How Distant Your Heart (2007) with Robin Guthrie
12. Mars And The Artist (2011)

Not a fan of New Age

http://www.factmag.com/2014/03/03/art-without-risk-is-pointless-a-conversation-with-avant-garde-composer-harold-budd/

Loved this video w Clive Wright I came across on YT a few weeks ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXUwmJwO_C4&app=desktop

I think what I loved the most was that they appear to have played this on a whim in their living room.

that's great! I am thinking Pensive Aphrodite is their master work together.

Interestingly, it was completely improvised and the first thing they worked on together:

The very first piece Harold Budd and Clive Wright worked on became the 30 minute opening track of A Song of Lost Blossoms. Called “Pensive Aphrodite,” it’s a pure improvisation for electric guitar and keyboard. Harold says they didn’t establish any parameters, including key signature, before playing.

Harold Budd: Not a thing. I think probably the key I chose because it’s the first sound you hear.

Clive Wright:”Pensive Aphrodite” is a performance because it was actually recorded straight to a two-track. We ended up recording it straight to CD. It was like one of those cuts, it just goes straight to a recording CD player.

The live album Agua is excellent and (provided there was no studio tweaking later) shows that he really could recreate those sounds on stage.

Just downloadedAgua. I enjoy it as well. Apparently it was recorded in 1989 on whatever passed for his tour following The White Arcades. I gather from Discogs that most of the titles on the CD pressing are actually incorrect. But does anyone know what the deal with this was? Is this actually live? There are lots of fade-ins and -outs that suggest not.

The Little Glass, with Akira Rabelais, is quite lovely. Disc #1 consists of both lapidary and protracted works for solo piano by both musicians, reminiscent of Alexander Malter's self-perpetuating variations on Arvo Pärt's Für Alina. Disc #2 is all A. Rabelais: he disorients and refracts disc #1's acoustic material until it others itself—far more than a photographic negative, as it were.

Agua - Holy shit, there's video! It was a whole Opal Records artists show: Harold Budd (2 tracks), Laraaji (2), Michael Brook (3), Roedelius (1), Roger Eno (1).

The video is in 3 parts, about 45 minutes total. Here's part 1--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJLtB74xcQQ

Wowza, indeed. A big of snooping around online suggests that this was recorded in a cave(!!) on the Canary Islands as part of the Opal Evening shows these guys all took part in around this time. There's a nice description of what Eno was doing w these shows from David Shephard's book here.

You can see Budd playing a bit from The Moon and the Melodies on it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Wfu3o0gqo

For this show, it was pretty clear Budd was playing piano over tapes -- not a bad thing, actually as the backing tracks are quite delicate and not surprising insofar as he was more or less touring The White Arcades at this point, for which there was a lot of overdubbing. Worth noting that the rest of the show is really good as well. Laraaji's performance is really solid -- and processed either or live or in post-production by Michael Brook, who seems to have executive produced this show and remixed the audio (Brook also produced Laraaji's Flow Goes The Universe (1992) and Roger Eno's excellent Between Tides from 1988). Seems that Roger Eno and Laraaji's performances were released on a record called Islands. Also, kind of unrelated: the Roedelius piece in this show is "Lustwandel" from 1981.

Given all these excerpts, one wonders if there is more video floating around somewhere ...

Thanks for linking that interview up there, Naive Teen... this part cracked me up:

Clive Wright: Candylion was conceived by Harold Budd as a second album in a triptych , a desert triptych . So, thematically, it’s about the desert.
Harold Budd: I don’t really think so. They are not. They have nothing to do with the landscape. I don’t feel wedded to the landscape that way. That faux romance of the western deserts, I don’t buy it.

I think the Budd/Wright trilogy (Song for Lost Blossoms, Candylion, and Little Windows) is very deserty. But whatever, it's awesome.

u kno u are truly on an ambient tip when u think "I need to skip this harold budd song, he is just striking those piano keys too aggressively!"

Brian Eno delenda est!

lol I think Budd is kinda mad that his work gets classified as ambient

authorial intent means nothing!

(tbf to budd tho, i am repulsed by everything else in the world that is called 'ambient'--he alone is a shiny muted jewel)

hahaha, watch Clive Wright's Youtube videos sometime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYJkH6mdbAY

it's got the desert, and UFOs, and a dog... I love this video so much

harold budd, internationally known, worked with lots of famous people, will be in the history books forever re: ambient music

but yet...is he the most underrated musician...OF ALL TIME?

if there was a terrible library of alexandria-style fire and all of the records of the 1970s were about to burn up, i think i might seriously select Pavilion of Dreams as the one piece of music from the decade that NEEDS to be saved.

Amen, KM

so often he's been mentioned as an afterthought to Eno (although, anecdotally, that seems to be becoming less common when i see his name mentioned). but Eno could never compose anything like Pavilion of Dreams - it's from a different language or planet entirely. i'm amazed at how cohesive Pavilion is, over the course of 47-minutes, despite covering so much musical.

and the Rosetti Noise/Chrystal Garden & a Coda section, especially, is some of the most beautiful music of the 20th century

it's a testament to the greatness of the entire thing that Rosetti is pure aural bliss but it took years and years of listening for me to recognize it on its own - by the time it arrives in the recording, 25 minutes in, i'm almost always lost in entrancement. it has a nearly psychotropic effect, this album

it's also, without fail, one of the few albums i own that makes everyone who hears it (anyone who dares set foot in my tiny apartment, that is) say "what IS this?". i was on a long car ride a few months ago and put it on quietly when a passenger in the backseat fell asleep. when he woke up later he said "what WAS that we were listening to?"

it's like the incredibly subdued, peaceful album equivalent of the high fidelity/beta band scene

eh, he's ok, not sure about most underrated. he's found his level.

album: classic
vocals: dud

As wonderful as Pavilion of Dreams may be. It is definitely very exquisite slumber music. But my fave has always been Plateaux of Mirror. The aural equivalent of jumping in a bed of cottonwool, the translation of the absinth experience into sound. Wooly, otherworldly bliss. How I love that piano sound.

i listened to 'lovely thunder' after recently rewatching the first twin peaks and couldn't believe how similar the vibe to badalmenti's soundtrack was. i know comparing things to twin peaks is super boring but the similarity, to me, was remarkable. also it was good if a bit cheesy

also the pavilion vocals are great! the pearl is really good too. also will stan hard for parts of 'avalon sutra'

that hourlong mix of 'as long as i can hold my breath' is so good

The Little Glass with Akira Rabelais is still my favourite.

Xpost exactly. I could listen to that all day

RIP

Fuck

wait. . . really??? source???

Man, this is really sad.

RIP

A friend of his announced on FB he died last night.

aaargh

Moon & The Melodies LP is sitting about 5 feet away from me as I type this.

RIP

So very saddened by this news.

oh no! don't know as many of his records as i feel i should tbh, but i did see him play once as part of jah wobble's solaris project with jaki liebezeit, bill laswell and graham haynes

Ah shit. Rip.

cheers to him for a long and prolific life, and a legacy of great records I still listen to all the time

84! He played a blinder. I'm going to listen to The Pavilion of Dreams all night.

RIP — he gave so much, don't think I've heard a bad Budd record.

if there was a terrible library of alexandria-style fire and all of the records of the 1970s were about to burn up, i think i might seriously select Pavilion of Dreams as the one piece of music from the decade that NEEDS to be saved.

― Karl Malone

i made a mistake above, corrected it now.

RIP Harold Budd. you added so much to the lives of so many

A true genius. Just had this come out last Friday, a full collaboration with Guthrie (recorded in 2013)

https://robinguthrie.bandcamp.com/album/another-flower

Harold Budd & Albert Ayler playing together in US army bands & repping each other... legit too heartwarming to handle pic.twitter.com/NIhzWEcxjW

— Good Willsmith (@GoodWillsmith) December 8, 2020

As well as Ambient 2 I used to have the Pearl and the White Arcades years ago. Need to look at re-aquiring them, was very fond of them.

Mark Rothko's advice to a young Harold Budd pic.twitter.com/PFrtdWFp75

— sophiepenrose (@sophiepenrose) December 8, 2020

A bummer. The Plateaux of Mirror is one of my favorite night chill-out albums.

Oh damn it, so many people this year :(

I love Harold's music so much. On one occasion I named a tune after him, which I kinda had to considering it featured a fairly sizeable loop of one of his tunes. Dovetails with Ned's post too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ7yeSI9-g8

I ate a sandwich next to Harold Budd in catering at a festival, and with a mouthful of turkey said "I love falling asleep to your records. Its so nice" and he replied "You look like you haven't slept in weeks" RIP

— Ryley walker (@ryleywalker) December 8, 2020

only hung with him once. simultaneously so chilled out and so edgy. weirdly cool and dangerously charming

had been listening to 'In The Mist' a bunch this week. seemed all over the place when I got it, it is perfect now. while going backwards chronological today playing 'Perhaps' only once wasn't enough. saving 'La Bella Vista' for last though

https://www.vvdailypress.com/news/20171223/famed-composer-harold-budd-reflects-on-boyhood-in-1940s-victorville

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3aC_wezrvc

After 40 years of bedtime ambient music, I have undoubtedly spent more hours listening to Harold Budd than any other artist by far.

(Who is this Harold Hurd that autocorrect wants me to talk about?)

2020 isn’t done sucking just yet, I guess. A few jumbled initial thoughts:

1) As soon as I saw this news, I went not to the Eno collaborations — but The White Arcades, which conjures such a magical atmosphere. Even with cheap synths, the man was peerless.

2) The live version of Children on a Hill from 1982 that Milton turned me onto many moons (and melodies) ago might be my favorite thing by him — the subtle use of harmonizers here is really extraordinary, and even extended to 22 minutes, it reminds me that his voice and compositional style are criminally underappreciated.

3) The essay I did for Perhaps’ original issue is the only one-sheet I ever did – and it still gives me goosebumps when I remember Samadhi Sound’s press guy telling me Harold was “over the moon” when he read it.

I'll miss him.

I love Perhaps so much — is your one-sheet online anywhere?

Shockingly, it is: http://www.samadhisound.com/haroldbudd/news/harold_budd_perhaps.html

dammit I first read the ILE Covid thread and thought he was only infected... RIP

Fuck, I didn't realize it was COVID. That depresses me even more.

Saw this in the Variety obit (can't find the original link):

Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, a frequent Budd collaborator, posted on Facebook: “Shared a lot with Harold since we were young, since he was sick, shared a lot with Harold for the last 35 years, period. Feeling empty, shattered lost and unprepared for this. … Rest in peace, poet of the piano.”

New to me: 'Live @ Redcat', unbelievably well engineered soundboard of his career spanning 'retirement' concert. Jon Gibson flew out to play. Focuses on chamber works so heads up to 'Pavillion' fans. Kinda doubt this one will remain unofficial for long. Download came with unscanned pdf of original program notes.

this recording, I take it? http://sassas.org/event/harold-budd/
sounds fantastic.

Wow, had never listened to Perhaps before. It is spectacular.

Listened all day at work:

Fenceless Night 1980-1998 (career-spanning promo pushing his music for film soundtracks)
Jane 12-21
The Pavilion of Dreams
Children on the Hill (Live in Chicago 1982)
Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror
In the Mist
La Bella Vista
The Pearl
The Serpent (In Quicksilver)

Tomorrow I think I'll do nothing but collaboration albums. So many to choose from: Robin Guthrie & Cocteau Twins, John Foxx, Clive Wright, Andy Partridge, Ruben Garcia/Daniel Lentz, Bill Nelson/Fila Brazillia, Zeitgeist, Hector Zazou.

Or I could just put the 3 track stretch "The Plateaux of Mirror/Above Chiangmai/An Arc of Doves" on repeat forever.

i am listening to the White Arcades at the moment

Oh no, I just found out that Jon Gibson died in October.

I saw the two of them in concert in the mid-'90s maybe--completely wonderful. He played an interpretation of Roxy Music "More Than This" which I would kill to hear again. Somebody should release some old live performances--the "Agua" live album is very good.

Great write-up for Perhaps, Naive Teen Idol, thanks for sharing. It's one of his finest imo.

3 track stretch "The Plateaux of Mirror/Above Chiangmai/An Arc of Doves" on repeat forever

since I bought it in 1980, in my first batch of Eno-related records, The Plateaux Of Mirror has continued to be my fave album of all time.

The White Arcades, which conjures such a magical atmosphere. Even with cheap synths, the man was peerless.

"The Kiss" in particular has always seemed like a peak track from someone whose music is so consistently strong that getting lost in whole albums is usually the best way to go.

His music, as I get older (& sentimental), is the most likely to bring me to tears.

RIP

Here's an older John Foxx interview about working with Harold Budd.

https://thequietus.com/articles/23241-john-foxx-track-by-track

Threw Budd Box on shuffle for a lazy Sunday morning as outside of The White Arcades it’s mostly records I know more in passing than by heart. I miss him but love how much there still is to discover (or re-discover).

yeah, every few months i download one that i haven’t heard (or haven’t heard in years) and it’s always a joy

A Song for Lost Blossoms floors me every time I listen to it

(Pensive Aphrodite to be more specific but the entire album really)

thanks for that, listening now