Harold Budd - search and destroy

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