Harold Budd ...
Genre:Avant-Garde,Electronic,New Age,Pop/Rock,Classical.
Styles:Ambient,Experimental,Experimental Electronic,Neo-Classical,Minimalism,Avant-Garde Music,Chamber Music.
The American ambient/neo-classical composer who has most closely allied himself with the increasingly sympathetic independent rock underground -- through his collaborations with the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie -- Harold Budd is also one of the very few who can very rightly be called an ambient composer. His music, a sparse and tonal wash of keyboard treatments, was inspired by a boyhood spent listening to the buzz of telephone wires near his home in the Mojave Desert town of Victorville, CA (though he was born in nearby Los Angeles). Though interested in music from an early age, Budd was 30, already married, and with children of his own by the time he graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in musical composition in 1966. He became a respected name in the circle of minimalist and avant-garde composers based in Southern California during the late '60s, premiering his works "The Candy-Apple Revision" and "Unspecified D-Flat Major Chord and Lirio" around the area. In 1970, he began a teaching career at the California Institute of Arts, but continued to compose while there, writing "Madrigals of the Rose Angel" in 1972.
After leaving the Institute in 1976, Budd gained a recording contract with the Brian Eno-affiliated EG Records, and released his debut album, The Pavilion of Dreams, in 1978. Two years later, he collaborated with Eno on one of the landmark albums of the ambient style, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirrors. After recording two albums for Cantil in 1981 (The Serpent [In Quicksilver]) and 1984 (Abandoned Cities), Budd again worked with Eno on 1984's The Pearl. A contract with Eno's Opal Records resulted in one of Budd's most glorious albums,The White Arcades, recorded in Edinburgh with Robin Guthrieof the Cocteau Twins. Budd left Opal after 1991's By the Dawn's Early Light, and recorded two albums for Gyroscope: Music for 3 Pianos (with Ruben Garciaand Daniel Lentz) and the lauded Through the Hill, a collaboration with Andy Partridge of XTC. In the mid-'90s, he recorded albums for New Albion and All Saints before signing to Atlantic for the release of The Room in mid-2000.
In 2004, Budd decided to retire, claiming he had said all he wanted to, and that he "didn't mind disappearing." His "final" outing, Avalon Sutra/As Long as I Can See My Breath, appeared on David Sylvian's Samhadi Sound imprint as a double disc. The album featured 14 new pieces, some recorded solo, some recorded with saxophonist Jon Gibson, and some with a string quartet. Budd apparently changed his mind about retirement and his collaboration with Eraldo Bernocchi,Fragments from the Inside, issued on Sub Rosa, arrived in the spring of 2005. Back to composing and recording, Budd signed to Darla in late 2007. He began working with producer Clive Wright that same year. Song for Lost Blossoms was issued in 2008, followed by the release of Candylion in mid-2009; the pair also worked together on 2010's Little Windows.
(Artist Biography by John Bush)
In February 2011, Darla Records released a CD album by Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd entitled ''Bordeaux'', recorded in the summer of 2010 in Bordeaux, France and mixed in Guthrie's studio, in Rennes, France.
In November 2011, Eraldo Bernocchi's RareNoiseRecords released a CD album by Eraldo Bernocchi, Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie entitled ''Winter Garden'', recorded in the summer of 2010 in Tuscany, Italy and mixed in Guthrie's studio, in Rennes, France.
In March 2012, Budd appeared as one of the featured composer/performers at San Francisco's Other Minds festival.
Brian Eno & Harold Budd | Ambient 2 - The Plateaux Of Mirror
1. First Light -- 00:00
2. Steal Away -- 06:59 (composed by Harold Budd and Eugene Bowen)
3. The Plateaux of Mirror -- 08:38
4. Above Chiangmai -- 12:55
5. An Arc of Doves -- 15:40
6. Not Yet Remembered -- 22:10
7. The Chill Air -- 26:10
8. Among Fields of Crystal -- 28:20
9. Wind in Lonely Fences -- 31:48
10. Failing Light -- 35:42
As Long As I Can Hold My Breath,full album.
DISC 1
1. Arabesque 3 - 0:00
2. It's Steeper near the Roses (For David Sylvian) - 2:40
3. L'enfant Perdu - 3:47
4. Chrysalis Nu (To Barney's Memory) - 6:00
5. Three Faces West (Billy Al Bengston's) - 8:01
6. Arabesque 2 - 10:52
7. Little Heart - 13:54
8. How Vacantly You Stare at Me - 21:35
9. A Walk in the Park with Nancy (In Memory) - 25:36
10. Rue Casimir Delavigne (For Daniel Lentz) - 31:30
11. Arabesque 1 - 37:00
12. Porcelain Ginger - 38:57
13. Faraon - 40:58
14. As Long as I Can Hold My Breath - 42:20
DISC 2
1. As Long As I Can Hold My Breath (by Night) - 46:13
2. It's Steeper near the Roses (For David Sylvian) - 2:40
3. L'enfant Perdu - 3:47
4. Chrysalis Nu (To Barney's Memory) - 6:00
5. Three Faces West (Billy Al Bengston's) - 8:01
6. Arabesque 2 - 10:52
7. Little Heart - 13:54
8. How Vacantly You Stare at Me - 21:35
9. A Walk in the Park with Nancy (In Memory) - 25:36
10. Rue Casimir Delavigne (For Daniel Lentz) - 31:30
11. Arabesque 1 - 37:00
12. Porcelain Ginger - 38:57
13. Faraon - 40:58
14. As Long as I Can Hold My Breath - 42:20
DISC 2
1. As Long As I Can Hold My Breath (by Night) - 46:13
Harold Budd and Brian Eno - The Pearl, full album.
0 "A Stream with Bright Fish" – 3:54 "The Silver Ball" –3:26 "Against the Sky" – 4:46 "Lost in the Humming Air" – 4:49 "Dark-Eyed Sister" – 4:36 "Their Memories" – 2:54 "The Pearl" – 3:07"Foreshadowed" – 3:54 "An Echo of Night" – 2:22 "Still Return" – 4:11
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - Mysterious Skin (Music from the film),full album.
Neil's Theme 00:00
The Memories Returning 02:16
Snowfall 04:21
Neil's Farewell 10:50
Childhood Lost 13:27
Halloween 16:04
A Silhouette Approaches 19:22
Goodbye to Wendy 21:50
Brian's Nightmare - The Unknown Part One 24:35
Twilight 28:38
The Unknown Part Two 32:26
The Discovery 34:36
Loitering 37:02
The Writing on The Wall 40:45
One True Love 42:35
Harold Budd and Clive Wright - A Song for Lost Blossoms,full album.
Pensive Aphrodite 00:00
A Song For Lost Blossoms 32:17
Forever Hold My Breath 36:58
At This Moment 46:51
Of Many Mirrors 53:38
The Saint Of Whispers 58:02
Blind Flowers 01:07:49
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - Before The Day Breaks
1.How Close Your Soul 0:00
2.A Formless Path 7:28
3.A Minute, A Day, No More 11:40
4.Outside, Silence 16:50
5.I Returned Her Glance 20:51
Harold Budd - La Bella Vista
Harold Budd - By the Dawn's Early Light,full album.
Poem Aztec Hotel 00:00
Boy About 10 01:33
Arcadia 06:32
Dead Horse Alive With Flies 08:33
The Photo of Santiago Mckinn 12:14
The Corpse at the Shooting Gallery 19:09
Albion Farewell (Homage to Delius, for Gavin Bryars) 22:07
Poem Distant Lights of Olancha Recede 24:45
Down the Slopes to the Meadow (For Ruben Garcia) 26:13
She Dances by the Light of the Silvery Moon 33:53
Blind Bird 36:05
Saint's Name Spoken 38:09
The Place of Dead Roads 42:08
A Child in a Sylvan Field 46:58
Poem Boy About 10 50:35
Poem Wings 51:54
Poem No Name 52:31
Poem Advent 53:26
Harold Budd - The White Arcades,full album.
1. The White Arcades 0:00
2. Balthus Bemused By Color 4:44
3. The Child With A Lion 10:01
4. The Real Dreams Of Sails 16:40
5. Algebra of Darkness 22:48
6. Totems Of The Red-Sleeved Warrior 29:22
7. The Room 32:45
8. Coyote 35:52
9. The Kiss 38:37
Harold Budd and Clive Wright/Little Windows,full album.
00:00 Plumade
03:15 Prelucid
07:57 Procession of Moons
16:07 Queen of Cydonia
23:12 Numismatic
26:50 Drifting Cities
32:16 Tong War
37:39 Sweet Earth Flying
44:09 Damask, Then
03:15 Prelucid
07:57 Procession of Moons
16:07 Queen of Cydonia
23:12 Numismatic
26:50 Drifting Cities
32:16 Tong War
37:39 Sweet Earth Flying
44:09 Damask, Then
1.Radiant City 0:00
Harold Budd: the composer with no urge to make music
He's a pianist without a piano, a composer reluctant to compose. Tim Jonze finds Harold Budd unable to explain how he ended up the godfather of ambient
I
t's a strange thing for anyone to say, but from a renowned composer it's especially baffling. "I'm not much of a music fan," says Harold Budd towards the end of a warm, engaging if occasionally mystifying conversation. "I just don't listen to music – at all!" Even more surprising, perhaps, is the fact that the 77-year-old doesn't even own his favoured instrument: a piano. "I think they're ugly things," he chuckles. "Architecturally speaking, and in other ways. So to actually live with a piano? Well, that would really insult my aesthetic sense."
There are other ways in which the American composer, over a career spanning several decades, has trodden his own path. His early compositions embraced 1960s minimalism, yet he soon felt so trapped by the movement's conceptualism it caused him to (temporarily) retire. He helped pioneer ambient music with Brian Eno in the early 1980s, yet has little regard for the tag – or tags in general. "I just have utterly no interest in that sort of thing," he sighs. And despite his highbrow credentials (Budd has composed for string quartets, choirs and even penned an extended gong solo), he has devoted much of his career to collaborating with British pop stars, from Cocteau Twins to Jah Wobble.
To confuse things further, Budd cites not music but visual art (in particular, the abstract expressionists Mark Tobey and Jackson Pollock) as his chief inspiration, although the notion that he's somehow immune to the thrill of music isn't true. As a teenager, he fell in love with the electrifying sound of bebop and went on to play drums for saxophonist Albert Ayler's band while serving in the army. "I wanted to be the world's greatest jazz drummer," he says. "And I failed at that!"
Budd hadn't wanted to join the army. "I was drafted. Plucked from life, which is what happens when you're very, very poor." Although the prospect of army life terrified him – "I felt for sure I would die" – it turned out to be a godsend. "I realised that if I didn't go out and get an education I would remain a dumb person all my life," he says. "It was also the first time that I was introduced to new places to live, different aspects of society. At the time, I lived in a black ghetto in LA and black culture was really the only outside culture I had ever confronted. I liked it very much, but I'm not black so I knew I would never fit in."
So Budd studied architecture then music – much to the bafflement of his family. Hearing John Cage deliver his lecture Where Are We Going And What Are We Doing? opened his ears to a new way of thinking and, in 1970, he recorded The Oak Of The Golden Dreams, a minimalist drone piece that arose from his experimentations with a Buchla synthesiser. Yet Budd found himself resenting the "academic pyrotechnics" at the heart of the avant-garde community and gave up composing altogether, before deciding to channel his anger into a reaction against everything he had previously learned.
In 1972, he wrote Madrigals of the Rose Angel which, with its harps, chimes and female choir, favoured surface beauty and emotional pull over theoretical framework. It caught the attention of Eno, who eventually recorded it, as part ofThe Pavilion of Dreams, Budd's landmark 1978 album. "The Pavilion of Dreams erased my past," says Budd. "I consider that to be the birth of myself as a serious artist. It was like my magna carta."
Budd's inspiration was once again visual art, in particular the work of the Pre-Raphaelites such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti. "I have to admit to you that part of that was political," he says, with a hint of mischief. "Because it was a regard for a kind of art that was completely disengaged from all serious art at the time."
Working with Eno changed Budd's life. "I owe Brian everything," he says, "But the primary thing was attitude. Absolute bravery to go in any direction. I once read an essay by the painter Robert Motherwell and he pointed out a truth that is so obvious and simple that it's overlooked: 'Art without risk is not art.' I agree with that profoundly. Take a flyer – and if it fails don't let it crush you. It's just a failure. Who cares?"
Eno and Budd were soon hailed as the godfathers of ambient thanks to collaborations such as 1980's Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror and 1984's The Pearl. Budd embarked on collaborations with other British artists: John Foxx, Andy Partridge, David Sylvian. "I couldn't get arrested in America," he says. "But as soon as I landed in Britain, I was taken seriously as an artist. What a change from just a few hours earlier!"
His work with the "wonderful" Cocteau Twins was a highlight: together they made the mesmerising 1986 album, The Moon and the Melodies, while his more recent collaborations with the group's Robin Guthrie have produced woozy instrumental magic such as How Distant Your Heart. Budd praises singer-songwriter Liz Fraser for her way with a title, something he's also adept at: takeFlowered Knife Shadows, or his new double-CD retrospective, Wind In Lonely Fences, which allows you to enjoy his back catalogue before you've even listened to it.
Budd, though full of admiration for all of his British collaborators, struggles when it comes to describing his own music. "I'm not very good at self-analysis," he says. "I should explore my own feelings more." In fact, throughout the interview, he apologises for not knowing how to answer certain questions. When I wonder if the lack of instruments in his house in South Pasadena, California, is due to an appreciation of silence, he says that it never crossed his mind before. Asked what he does when the sudden urge to play hits him, something you imagine must strike all musicians, he stumbles: "But I ... but I don't get the urge to play!"
He does, however, tell me something that reveals much about his unique approach to music. In 2012, he released Bandits of Stature, an album of cinematic works for string quartet. As he tells me about the recording sessions, his voice starts to waver. "My wife, who was also the mother of my 13-year-old son, passed away a year and a half ago," he says. "I wrote a lot of that music when she was still alive. And so it was extremely painful to revisit that place."
Last year, Budd completed a year-long project writing music for videos made by his friend the artist Jane Maru, in which he'd enter the studio with no preparation – no notes or even ideas – and record whatever he came up with that day. "Whatever I did was mixed and pressed, without it ever having to be revisited," he says, his voice brightening. "I had to use every ounce of everything I had. And I loved the process, oh I loved it! It was a definite reacquaintance with my old self, which I hadn't realised I missed so much. Oh my god, was I grateful!"
Such enthusiasm seems at odds with the idea of Budd not being a music fan, but it does make a sort of sense. I suggest that this may be what sets him apart from the average listener: that he feels music more intensely, so can't put himself through such highs and lows each day. "I never really thought about that," he says, chuckling again, as if baffled by the sheer mystery of himself. "But you know, it's a very good point. I think I'm going to take that as gospel."
Harold Budd's Wind In Lonely Fences 1970-2011 is out now.
25/2/2014 (*)
ΠΗΓΕΣ - ΠΑΡΑΠΟΜΠΕΣ
1984 The Pearl
1986 Lovely Thunder
1996 Luxa
2000 The Room
2002 Agua
2003 La Bella Vista
2005 Mysterious Skin
2009 Candylion
2010 Little Windows
2011 Winter Garden
2011 In the Mist
2013 Bandits of Stature
2013 Perhaps
2014 Avalon Sutra
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