1
Nov
08
#
Harold Budd “Smoke Trees. Chet”
The distinctively dreamy, often extraordinary and occasionally ominous music of Californian pianist Harold Budd is affecting and rich in images and has been widely imitated over the years. Imitated, but never bettered. Like fellow American Tim Story, Budd’s lyrical, emotionally subtle musings owe more than a little to the piano music of French composer Eric Satie (1866-1925) and Claude Debussy (1862-1918). In fact, Satie’s “Gymnopedies” and “Gnossiennes” were the virtual blueprint for a modern school which includes Budd, Story and a number of others. A major difference, however, is that Satie never had electronics and recording studios at his disposal, a tool which gives the music of his modern-day descendents a seductive air the Frenchman could only have dreamed of.
—Essential Releases: A Guide to Essential Ambient & Downtempo Music
Since the late ’70s, it has become a habit for recording artists to take longer and longer to write and record their music. Peter Gabriel, most famously, may take several years to record an album. At the other end of the spectrum, there are still a few bands and artists who will write and record an album in a matter of weeks.
And then there’s Harold Budd. The American ex-minimalist, ex-college lecturer, experimental ambient composer, solo artist and bon viveur may have taken eight years to release Luxa, his first solo studio album since The White Arcades (1988), but the speed and working methods with which he created his new album beggar belief. Luxa is a full 62 minutes and 32 seconds long, contains 16 pieces, and the music on it was written, played, recorded and mixed in just 11 days. On top of this, Budd still had time, according to engineer Michael Coleman (who recorded the album at his Orangewood Studios in Mesa, Arizona — see ‘Engineering for Harold Budd’ box), to “come into the studio some mornings, decide that he didn’t feel inspired at all, and call it a day”. At other times, Budd would spend hours trawling through synth sounds, trying to find a sound he liked, yet all Coleman would hear, in response to every sound that Budd tried, was: “Hate it… hate it… hate it… hate it… hate it… hate it…” But, adds Coleman: “When he’s ‘on’, he’s really on and it’s fascinating to watch him work. He’s a really nice guy, very laid back, very easy-going, yet when he’s inspired he just explodes creatively. He knows exactly what he wants and knows how to get the sounds he wants, and he works really, really quickly.”
—Sound on Sound: Harold Budd: January 1997
Harold Budd on MySpace
Harold Budd on David Sylvian’s Samadisound
Harold Budd listed on SleepBot: Ambience for the Masses
600,461 plays (55,833 listeners) on Last.fm
Samadhisound | Amazon | HMV |
vietint
Harold Budd “Smoke Trees. Chet”
The distinctively dreamy, often extraordinary and occasionally ominous music of Californian pianist Harold Budd is affecting and rich in images and has been widely imitated over the years. Imitated, but never bettered. Like fellow American Tim Story, Budd’s lyrical, emotionally subtle musings owe more than a little to the piano music of French composer Eric Satie (1866-1925) and Claude Debussy (1862-1918). In fact, Satie’s “Gymnopedies” and “Gnossiennes” were the virtual blueprint for a modern school which includes Budd, Story and a number of others. A major difference, however, is that Satie never had electronics and recording studios at his disposal, a tool which gives the music of his modern-day descendents a seductive air the Frenchman could only have dreamed of.
—Essential Releases: A Guide to Essential Ambient & Downtempo Music
Since the late ’70s, it has become a habit for recording artists to take longer and longer to write and record their music. Peter Gabriel, most famously, may take several years to record an album. At the other end of the spectrum, there are still a few bands and artists who will write and record an album in a matter of weeks.
And then there’s Harold Budd. The American ex-minimalist, ex-college lecturer, experimental ambient composer, solo artist and bon viveur may have taken eight years to release Luxa, his first solo studio album since The White Arcades (1988), but the speed and working methods with which he created his new album beggar belief. Luxa is a full 62 minutes and 32 seconds long, contains 16 pieces, and the music on it was written, played, recorded and mixed in just 11 days. On top of this, Budd still had time, according to engineer Michael Coleman (who recorded the album at his Orangewood Studios in Mesa, Arizona — see ‘Engineering for Harold Budd’ box), to “come into the studio some mornings, decide that he didn’t feel inspired at all, and call it a day”. At other times, Budd would spend hours trawling through synth sounds, trying to find a sound he liked, yet all Coleman would hear, in response to every sound that Budd tried, was: “Hate it… hate it… hate it… hate it… hate it… hate it…” But, adds Coleman: “When he’s ‘on’, he’s really on and it’s fascinating to watch him work. He’s a really nice guy, very laid back, very easy-going, yet when he’s inspired he just explodes creatively. He knows exactly what he wants and knows how to get the sounds he wants, and he works really, really quickly.”
—Sound on Sound: Harold Budd: January 1997
Harold Budd on MySpace
Harold Budd on David Sylvian’s Samadisound
Harold Budd listed on SleepBot: Ambience for the Masses
600,461 plays (55,833 listeners) on Last.fm
Samadhisound | Amazon | HMV |
This post was reblogged from roamin.
Following:
